


The Wounds We Mend

by Zerosubtance



Category: LOVECRAFT H. P. - Works, Lovecraft Country (TV), Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff
Genre: Discussion of Abortion, F/F, Gender or Sex Swap, Interracial Relationship, Other, Parallel Universes, Racism, Romance, Self-Harm, Time Travel, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:34:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 39,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27586837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zerosubtance/pseuds/Zerosubtance
Summary: When the body of Christina Braithwhite goes missing from Ardham, Ruby is left to pick up the pieces of what's left. Together with Ji-Ah Ruby unlocks the secrets to her own blood as well as the last living testament of Christina; as the two stumble upon a book known as the Book of Elohim from then on their world is turned upside down as mysterious forces hunt Ruby. Yet within these unfolding secrets a newly revived Order known as House of Adam appears, along with a mysterious man named Caleb. Meanwhile two-hundred years into the future Christina is given another chance at the eternal life, but it is not all that she was expecting as she struggles to get back to her time. Can the wounds that separate Ruby and Christina mend or will the Book of Elohim and Ruby's Blood unlock more secrets and lies?
Relationships: Ruby Baptiste & Letitia "Leti" Lewis, Ruby Baptiste/Christina Braithwhite, Ruby Baptiste/Christina Braithwhite/William
Comments: 38
Kudos: 69





	1. House of Cain Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Another one DJ Khaled! Here we go again. So, I know everyone has been asking about Christina as a vampire and I was like why the hell not I’m up for vampires. I’m going to still do my other story, but I just thought about Christina and Hiram’s Time Machine and well sexy vampires. Now I have never done a time travel or space fan-fic so please excuse me if I make some coordinates and things up as I go. Yet this is based on some of episode seven and it is the continuation of Lovecraft Countries finale. Also, there might be some real H.P. Lovecraftian Monsters on here next to Shoggoth’s, and a lot of heavy-handed Racism and challenges with Colorism.

**_Earth:502_ **

**_Coordinates: (2452.397.5097) (3021.348.9261)_ **

**_Location: Devon County, Ardham_ **

**_Year: 1955_ **

****

The rubble and ash still simmered and smoked; as the cold night of the equinox faded, yet the last flickers of darkness still carried on as dawn had stirred in the distance. Two hooded figures came to the rubble of Ardham dressed in dark ceremonial robes, and as they looked to the broken bloodied mass that sat under stone; no one had bothered to come back, and no one dared to disturb the moment. As one of the hooded-figures spoke up, his voice sounded liked cracked thunder as he kneeled to observe the crushed body. With a graceful command of his body, he brushed the bloody blonde bangs in between his middle and ringed finger. Pitching a melancholy sigh that stretched to the night and its stars; he took pity as he looked at the broken body. Removing his hood, his fanged teeth poured his hearts words into the night, “Such a broken thing you are, it’s a shame that this world has given you such wounds my dear. No matter…I will mend it all.”

“Are you sure this is the right person? There isn’t much we can do for her; she has been dead for hours.” The voice came from a young man much younger than the elder as he removed his own hood. The pale youth had been no older than eighteen, yet he was as long and looming as his arms and body were tall and long like Birchwood. He had a lean steel-barrel-chest, a keen jaw, and a well-crafted-nose. His blonde hair like the elders mirrored the moon, as his dark aquamarine pearls that sat behind his gold circle-shaped glasses stared at the body. With the young man searching for whatever answer he could find as he looked between the elder and the dead, he watched and waited for the scene to unfold before him.

A dejected sigh slipped from the elder as he observed the wounds of the body; only a moment passed as he answered out his eyes never leaving the dead, “Have I taught you nothing William. What has died can never truly experience death. You see a corpse, but I see a possibility within an endless scope of stars.” Removing the large rock from the crushed body, with ease he continued as if he were a scientist dissecting a frog. Taking out a small chrome device, he spoke into it his eyes fascinated by what he saw, “Cause of death: Asphyxiation. Race: human. Ethnicity: Caucasian. Hair: Blonde. Eyes: Blue. Estimated weight: 125 Pounds. Height: 5’8. It is with certainty that this subject is Christina Braithwhite the last true living blood heir to Titus Braithwhite. Daughter of Clarissa and Samuel Braithwhite, it is from my findings I believe her compatibility just maybe the key to unlocking the Book of Elohim. Due to the luck of such events we shall issue Order 88.”

“Order 88? Master Caleb if we do that everything will…”

“William my son, we are the eighty-eighth house of our Order; and we like all houses are sworn to Adam. On record this venture shall be placed as Order 88, it shall give us time until I can determine a favorable solution. Besides, it is our will and what is broken can be mended and forged into a new.”

Pushing the last piles of the bolder away with ease; the elder had not had the strength of any mere-mortal. Only the dark secrets of his lab told him that he sought something more when he saw to the nourishment of his body. His bright blue eyes raked up the body in delight. Yet something of the nature changed the more he stared at the corpse; and within moments his mouth hung slightly ajar. There in the center of the ripped part of dress her bloody stomach shown the raised pattern of flesh. Time held its breath as seconds later the faint rise and fall of the blood-battered-body whispered into the dead. The young man jumped back as he dared to challenge what he saw as his own fanged mouth opened, “How is she alive? It cannot be! H-Her stomach is that the Mark of…”

Like a madden man, he howled with laughter into the air before his grinning fanged mouth shouted in blazing brilliance, “The Mark of Cain! My Bloody Bride once again you shall speak into the night. Blessed and cursed once again, we are your children my sweet Cain. We men made wolves, we lost few shall howl once again that I can promise you. William take her.”

The young man bent down taking the broken body into his arms, as he felt the faint beat of a heart against his own chest he softened at the fragile woman. As her twisted neck drew out blood, spit, and bile; her death filled blue-gray-eyes passed a broken word from her cracked lips.

“R-Ru…B-By.”

Watching Caleb pull a syringe out from his robes before sticking it into the arm of the broken body; William felt the faint heartbeat stabilize. While he passed the body to the shorter elder, curiosity leapt up on his face, “W-What are we going to do with her?”

“Set coordinates to (6688.737.6668) and (3361.507.1388) we can reach our destination from here. Hiram's work is no use to us at this point.”

“Father that is…”

“Home yes I know. After we see what she knows, I shall go to Adam. I am sure they will know what to do with her, for she will be the rib to let us breathe again. A true daughter of Eve, a mother to our great house William.”

“Who is this woman and why are we risking everything to care for a corpse?”

“She is both our ancestor and my great, great, great, great grandmother. As I said before she is the last of Titus Braithwhite’s blood, and she is a true heir to all that we know. She will bring us glory and tell us secrets of what is lost.”

“What about the Book of Names and the Lost Line? Father, they sealed her away from magic there is nothing we can do for her.”

“Seals can be undone my son, and it is because of **her** existence that The Book of Elohim has been written. It is the key to surpassing the Book of Names itself and it the clue to much more.”

“And what of the Lost Line and other of Titus blood?”

“Leave them be. They are servants meant to serve servants; if what we know is claimed as the truth, their blood is diluted and beyond repair. Now prepare us,” Caleb commanded out.

Taking a bag from out of his black-hooded cloak; crystal blue sand glowed bright as he drew the pattern around them. Forming symbols unknown to the human eye it took him mere minutes to complete his task. Taking a knife, he slit his hand letting his blood drip into the eye of dust that sat within the center, the glow of blue brightened; and within moments a cold flame ignited surrounding them both. The young man spoke an unknown language into the night, as lines of gold crossed into a pattern within the night sky the center lining with their path. A lighted beam washed down on them both just as the sun rose and within the morning mist, all three figures were gone from the sight of man.

**_***_ **

**_Earth:502_ **

**_Coordinates: (2452.397.5097) (302.3489.261)_ **

**_Location: Chicago, Hyde Park_ **

**_Year: 1955_ **

“She’s waking up! Give her some room, Dee get Leti.” Her eyes struggled slowly to open as the smell of the musty old mold hit her nostrils; her mouth felt dry as she struggled to lift her arm to clear away whatever sleep that crowded her eyes. A warm hand came to her arm, along with a smooth Korean accent, “You have to be careful, here let me get you something.”

A croak came from her cracked lips; as her throat felt dry and raw, yet she muttered out her burning question, “W-Where am I?”

“You are here and that’s all that matters. Please try not to struggle too much, here let me help you.” Hearing water, the feeling of a warm rag cleared the remainder of sleep from her eyes as her brows furrowed and fluttered open slowly. She was in the basement as a moment of memories flooded to her before she settled into swift darkness; a cold white fear gripped her, while tears stung in the corners of her eyes. Behind her eyelids her mind pictured the last moment she had; a look of a hurt and an angered Christina staring at her played into her mind as she held the potion with her blood in her hand.

“C-Christina.”

“No. My name is Ji-Ah…I’m a friend of Atticus and I’m a nurse.” Ruby nodded her silent thanks as she took a glass of water before drinking it down with ease, as she handed it back to the nurse.

“Your sister…Leti she came down here to get you and we found you like this,” Ji-Ah answered. Ruby noticed a quiet pain within the Korean woman’s voice, it was something that she carried all too much on her own; and as she looked into her brown eyes she saw a spark of something there, It had been a sad spark that reminded her of the last person she saw.

“How long was I out?” Sitting up the nurse kept a steady hand on her as her legs regained their function. Ruby slid herself into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, looking next to her she noticed the empty beds that once belonged to Dell and William.

Noticing the thicker woman’s curiosity, the Kumiho answered quickly. “Montrose took the bodies and burned them. Until today you have been like this for a month. We…didn’t want to move you, so we just kept watch over you.” Pushing herself forward the nurse kept a steady hand on her; she saw a worried spark in her eyes again, all of it reminding her of the grim fate she suffered. Ruby wanted to ask about Christina, but a part of her knew something had gone wrong; yet more was in the nurse’s eyes something all-knowing, but she heard the footsteps of Leti as she busted into the basement.

“Ruby!” Long strides passed over the distance as Ruby met with Leti’s embrace, before pulling back. “I didn’t know if you would wake up! Then Ji-Ah told me that she saw the Mark of Cain on you! Then this letter arrived for you, and then these white men in suits showed up at the door looking for you!”

“Leti slow down. I’m fine...what about everyone else?” Ruby’s eyes darted between her sister and the nurse’s own falling tears. Noticing the water that gathered in Leti’s eyes, Ruby heard her sister’s voice strain as the words fell from her lips, “Tic…died during Christina’s spell. He protected his family and fought all the way to the bitter end.”

“And…Christina?”

“We left her back at Ardham, she was trapped under rubble after we sealed her and all white people’s magic. So, me and my baby are free,” Leti spoke up in finality rubbing her growing two-month belly.

“S-So you just left her there! No one thought to get her any medical help or anything,” Ruby accused.

“We just lost Tic and Dee she…”

Anger boiled in Ruby as she wanted to scream her heart had heard the words, but her ears didn’t want to listen. Grief gathered like a storm making her mind muddled and muddy, Ruby’s soul went blind as she heard the words from her Sisters mouth. Searching she found the closest emotion she could find in the darkness. Her eyes batted angrily as she pushed back her grief. Ruby knew her tears could be saved for later, right now she wanted to know everything, “Dee. Did. What?”

“She killed Christina and left her body back at Ardham,” Hippolyta spoke up as she trailed down the stairs with Dee in tow; noticing the child’s arm it was a horrifying sight as it was a mangled construct of crude machinery. She saw the cold dead look within the girl’s eyes; they had told her she no longer found the sweet or scared girl that she held close to her at Emmett Till’s funeral. Standing up on shaky legs Ji-Ah stabilized the singer; Ruby looked and nodded her thanks to the nurse who did not dare to look up.

Redirecting her anger back at a more than formal blue-haired Hippolyta, her voice echoed throughout the basement. “So that’s it? We’re just going to let a child kill someone who wasn’t even a threat,” Ruby gestured over to the steel-eyed-girl

“Christina would’ve found a way. White folks like her never learn, she would have come for the rest of us. We have to protect our own,” Dee spoke up.

Stepping forward out of the nurse’s support, Hippolyta stepped in front of her daughter as Ruby’s anger spewed like venom, “You better watch what you say about her.”

“And you better watch whose daughter your threatening,” Hippolyta threatened back the blue flares in her hair rising as if touched underwater.

Quick to come in between the two Leti was the first to speak up, “Ruby please listen, it’s not right to blame Dee for what happened. I know your angry, but this was Tic’s choice he died protecting his family; he died protecting his own. Christina was only in it for herself.” 

A weary smile came to Ruby’s face as she closed her eyes in anger nodding to herself. “His family? I died too Leti in more ways than you know! All of you talk about protection, but who was protecting me when you asked me to steal from Christina hmm? You know…I’m starting to see a pattern here. All of you wanted to paint Christina as your villain, you leave your daughter on me for days Hippolyta, and I had defended you from Montrose almost beating your ass Leti! All you are fuck up’s, and all of you are just fucked up!”

Leti tried again, this time her own patience wavering, “She was trying to kill the father of my child Ruby!”

“Well he’s dead anyway Leti! He is dead because you and him couldn’t grow the fuck up and see the bigger picture. You two were too busy looking for an adventure instead of getting your shit together!”

With Leti’s anger growing she watched as the glares of Dee and Hippolyta had been directed at her. All of it fueled the Lewis to speak, “No Ruby it’s you who refuses to grow the hell up! Here you go just like momma chasing after these white folks; you have always put your people last before their approval. Whose table are you trying to sit at Ruby?”

A steely silence drifted in the room making Ruby shoot back snidely, “I should be asking you that. You can fool everyone into thinking your down with whatever we black folks go through; but really Leti, you have never had to run the race that I have had to run. We all can’t have white daddies.”

Slowly Leti gained her breath speaking with equal fire, “Oh you had had a white daddy alright, I’m sure you had a lot of him in this house. You chose to help me Ruby! And even though I try to clean up the messes I made, your like momma because nothing is never good enough for you. I lost the father of my child thanks to you!”

“And I lost the love of my life thanks to you!” The room went silent so much so that she didn’t hear Montrose come down with flask in hand. All eyes within the basement were on her as embarrassment settled in on her, yet more pain came than her shame all of it making her quietly speak out, “Get. Out.”

Tears finally fell as Ruby hadn’t dared to collect them. Instantly Leti regretted her words as she pleaded, “Ruby…I-I didn’t mean that...”

Roaring as loud as she could she had no strength for anything as her tears wanted to spill, “Get the fuck out of my house now all of you!” Montrose had been the first to leave along with Dee, Hippolyta, and lastly Leti who seemed to angry and sad to look back at her. Hearing the front door upstairs close, weakly Ruby stood staring at the only one who had been in the room besides her. Ji-Ah kept her reserved distance from the thicker dark-skinned woman, as it looked as if she were calculating how to comfort her. In mocking spite Ruby had been the first to speak up, “What you came to comment on the black spectacle? Well it’s over now, you can go back to whatever rock Atticus found you under.”

“I’m…not here for that,” Ji-Ah spoke out as she collected fallen papers that spilled to the floor from the wind.

“Then what are you here for then hmm?” Drained of energy, Ruby took a seat on the bed her back turned to the nurse as her stomach tangled itself in knots. To nauseated from the listing of events and too drained to scream out anymore, a weary rawness clawed at her throat.

“You know…I had a friend who I loved back in Korea, she…was the same as you. She loved me dearly…so much so she gave up her life for mine.”

“Where is she now?”

“Atticus took her life when he was serving over in my village. So…we never got a chance like you did.”

“That seems to be the story of everyone’s life so far,” Ruby snidely spoke out.

“For months I thought of nothing but revenge; I wanted him to hurt like I did, and I wanted to return my friends suffering. However, no matter how much I tried that hate turned into love. I hated myself for how I felt.”

“A-And how did you get rid of all of it?”

“I didn’t.” A wavering voice fell from Ji-Ah, as she continued, “Leti did not tell you the whole truth, I…had a hand in your lovers’ death as well. The night she died; I saw it. Her pain, joy, fear, arrogance, and…I saw her love. She…loved you more than you know and if you will allow me, I want to tell you all the things she couldn’t say to you.”

“And what could you possibly know about us, and why should I believe anything you say?”

“I am a Kumiho. I can see things of the past, present, and sometimes future. That night I was needed to kill Christina, but I could not save Atticus. Yet, within her last moments I saw her with you, and I saw the great lengths of her love for you.” 

Tears finally came from her eyes as her voice waivered into the damp basement, “That’s a load of shit you know. Christina never gave a damn about me or anyone for that matter; if she did, she would’ve stayed and taught me magic. I got played, and I was the step to her ascension. She never loved me; that’s the reality for big-black-colored girls like myself, we don’t get happy endings.”

“I know that isn’t true.”

“Yeah and what you kn-”

Before she could finish her sentence, a quick nauseating wave collected within her. Running over to the sink behind her bed she emptied the contents of her stomach with ease. As the wave didn’t stop, the warmth of a hand reached out to rest on her bare back while soothing touches traced patterns on her skin. She remembered the pattern; it was the same that Christina would draw when they slept.

Slowly Ruby looked up and she saw it. There had been a small spark of blue within the Korean woman’s brown-eyes; and for a moment through her blurred vision, she saw Christina causing Ruby to warily whisper, “Y-Your telling the truth, aren’t you?” The Kumiho silently nodded saying nothing more as tears racked the singers body weakening her. Not knowing how the two of them sank to the floor, the nurse held her as Ruby felt smaller within the woman’s arms; and after a moment that seemed to go on forever, the silence of the room gathered as her tears stopped.

“Your right. She did love me.” Continuing the small waiver clawed in Ruby’s throat making her voice tremble, “You know even if your right about what you are, and even if you killed Christina; the truth is…I killed her long before that. However, that’s not the worst of it, the worst part is I blame myself for everything; and I blame myself because I didn’t have enough courage to love myself even as she was loving me. I guess I’m still that small woman stuck at Marshall Fields.”

Ji-Ah kept her silence as the black woman stared to the bookshelf aimlessly that sat near the stairs. Not daring to look at her captive that held her warmly like a true sister, in the moment Ruby felt Christina fade.

***

**_Saturn: 504_ **

**_Coordinates:_** ( ** _6688.737.6668) (3361.507.1388)_**

**_Location: Unknown_ **

**_Year: 2155_ **

****

The room had been sterile and cold; with walls made of polished metal and stone, the machinery clicked and calculated as queer test-tubes swirled with substances unknown to the eye of man. The air had been stale and heavy, as the tinkering of noise reserved life’s blood and vitals; yet nothing could be heard as screams suffocated the area around the lone worker. Getting up the fanged man walked over to the far left of the lab; stopping he stood staring at the large bloody red sack, it hung over an open drain like a hanging slab of slaughter. “Don’t worry. It will all be over soon my dear.”

As horrifying screams sung within the containment unit; naked handprints had shown themselves on the thick bloody membrane. The moment of the attempted escape had not offended him; instead, amazement sat on the maddened mans lips as another entered the lab. He didn’t need to turn as the smell of the familiar did not need much of his attention, not when there was much work to do.

Slowly the youth wandered to his side. “Look at her William, behold our new race an unstoppable force. She will translate the secrets of the Book of Elohim, and from it we shall take this glory to Adam. No subject has ever survived this long.”

A lump sat in William’s throat as he questioned, “Not even my mother?”

Ignoring the younger man Caleb spoke his voice determined, “Soon we will evolve into what we are meant to be, and the war on Seraphina and the Book of Names will be over.”

The young man walked up to the sack touching it as the bloody trail oozed on his hand; watching his father walk back to his desk, he could not help but share what he’d learned. “I spoke with Kaius, he said that he will honor our expedition, but I did not tell him of what we found.”

“Good. Kaius is nothing but a begging dog at Adam’s feet frothing at the mouth for scraps. We need Henry to back us.”

“Henry Winthrop?”

“Henry is young, and he is obsessed with the Order of the Ancient Dawn; though we have evolved from such a name and expanded, he seeks to mend the rift between our families. Surely when we tell him of what we are trying to achieve, I’m sure his word will pull some of the Houses of Adam to us.”

“What makes you so sure? He could be using us like others have done in the past, we are a bastard hou-”

Caleb snapped banging his fist against his desk making William jump, his large fangs snarled out in an anger as he growled out, “Do not say those words in front of me! I will not hear such madness come from you again **boy**. Magic has merit, but without transaction it is useless. Henry Winthrop is from the fourth house, and the House of Hothir and their word cannot help but be respected amongst the Houses of Adam.”

“I am sorry for my rudeness father, but I worry about our plan.”

“You leave such matters to me.”

“I know but what of Adam and what if they find out that we have been hiding all of this? Just as well what happens if they do not honor our word?”

“From what was offered to the rest of the eighty-three houses below the Five Houses of Adam, was a place of status amongst the great houses. If we can interpret the Book of Elohim we will rise in status. It was the Book of Elohim that gave the eighty-eight houses their magic nearly two-hundred years ago; but it was one spell for each house. So far none of the eighty-eight houses have been able to master more than one spell, and those who knew more than one are long since gone. You wonder why I made us what we are, that is because in truth no mere human body can hold such a magic; but when we fully evolve we can re-claim all magic for ourselves, and only then will Adam’s word mean nothing. Only true words are given to those few faithful.”

“But father if Adam finds out what we are doing, we could be killed.”

“I have no fear of Adam. The treatment is progressing much faster than I expected, most subjects before this never survived five minutes much less twenty-four hours. It may be due to the blood of Titus himself as it makes for a favorable conduit, or it may be something else keeping her alive all together aside from the Mark of Cain.”

“Your turning her,” William asked his fanged mouth almost agape.

“Once she awakens she will have her eternity, and she will teach us how to spell our bodies to become more powerful; there will be no place we cannot traverse and we will serve no time. Magic and Science will be as one and we will crush anything that hinders our goal.”

“Yes, that is the possibility if the odds are in our favor, but she could mutate into one of them,” William pointed out as he nodded to the loud animalistic noises that sat below.

“According to the Sons of Seraphina there are sixty-trillion parallel universes. That means I have sixty-trillion possibilities to see my goals bore fruit. Time even within its chaos is organized and meticulous, but so am I.”

“So, what about the mother and the child? On Earth 502.”

“Ah yes the one named Ruby Baptiste. Now that time has intervened, and we have the last of Titus Blood and her knowledge of magic along with the Book of Elohim; there is no need of her. Go to the Vault of Zin and call upon the Ghasts; we must keep our line pure and Ms. Baptiste is a blight on that line,” Caleb spoke out his voice cold and unfeeling.

The screaming and thrashing of the bloody shell grew louder; hearing the beasts cries in the background a banging deep below the soil could be heard. After looking below, William noticed the far right-side of the great rounded lab where three large six-layered circular vaults lingered. As he heard the banging and rattling of the beasts that slept below; he noticed their howls matched the thrashing muffled screams that came from the bloody sack.

“Can she hear everything we speak of?”

“Not consciously,” Caleb spoke not looking up from his book. The detestable noises pounded and piped again with force under his booted-feet. The Vaults of Zin, Yin, and Zang were his father’s creation, it been home to horrors and havocs unknown. As creatures of crawling chaos slept below them, they were nestled in a revolting graveyard of grinning caverns that sat below the black-souled-soil of their world. _He had made all of them, and he will make her. Yet I know she will not be a beast that he can contain._

William felt the awkwardly gigantic masses shuffle more, he knew they were heading to the first door they always did whenever they hungered, but now had been different. They were the crawling dark cosmic vomit of the world, beasts made of blood and bone. The Ghast and Shoggoth’s had been limitless and formless creatures of blight. Where the Shoggoth’s had been hulking beasts of muscled flesh that rested within the vault of Yin. The Ghast were repulsive creatures bound to the Vault of Zin, they were the bubbled blasphemies of the unknown. The Ghast were the first of his father’s experiments; as they leapt on their hind legs like kangaroos while their blood drenched faces, long arms, and poisonous claws begged for flesh. He had been six the first time he’d seen the Ghast, as they been a molting breed between man’s madness and magic. The Ghast were unwholesome in bodily nature as their faces held the absence of a nose, lips, ears, and forehead. William only known them as cruelties creatures for he knew how to control such beasts; but still the image of his father’s intentions would not rest well alongside his conscience.

The sack moved wildly as the beasts from the vault banged repeatedly; but his attention turned to the pale weakened hands that pulled and clawed at the sack wildly, but soon they retreated into the bloody bubble.

“Father.”

“What is it,” Caleb asked not looking up from his writings.

“What if we don’t send the Ghast and we use Ms. Baptiste as a bargaining chip? At least until she awakens, and we know she can read the Book of Elohim.” The thrashing of the sack stopped as all the creatures ceased their movements from beyond the locked vault. As the elder turned his chair from his studies he straightened his black and grey suit as he walked up to his only son. Taking off his glasses before staring transparently to his only son, his combed back blonde hair and blue eyes shined with interest at his blood. Giving a slight tap to the young man’s chest in pride Caleb agreed.

Walking to his chair and taking his black-hooded-cloak he earnestly smirked, “You are absolutely right, only fools rush in. See to it that Ms. Braithwhite’s vitals remain at a stable level; and make sure her temperature is as close to normal as possible while I am away.”

“Won’t she heal with the Mark of Cain,” William spoke up.

“Naturally, she will. Even though her tie to magic is broken, she will have no need of it once she sees the unstoppable force that she is. I have never seen magic used this way, even within our limited range of the craft. According to the Law of Equivalent Exchange, the Freemans bound their bloodline to seal her magic and they used Atticus Freemans body as collateral. However, for her to come upon the Mark of Cain is a fascination in itself; she must have placed it on another as a contingency plan.”

A lump tossed back and forth in William’s throat, “You mean Ms. Baptiste.”

As Caleb walked over to the bloody sack, he placed a hand on it as the muffled screams and thrashing began again as the beasts behind the vaults did as well. Taking out another syringe the needle had been larger and filled with green liquid; within moments he stuck it into the sack unloading the contents.

“Shh…Sleep now. This Metamorphosis, this pain you feel, this blood, bone, and flesh coming together in you is all but a dream. Pain is unmaking you. However, you my darling will be re-forged, and you will walk amongst us anew. I will give you the world if you let me Christina.” Licking the bloody cocoon; he drank his fill before pulling back with a fanged smile, his eyes never met the tall-youths.

“It took God seven days to make the world William, but I will remake it in three. I shall be the prophet that spills the true yoke of Cain into this wretched world; and we few faithful shall rise to awaken men from such a world. Not even Adam, Seraphina, or the Book of Names will stop us. We will wield what is owed to us, and our dear Mother of Mayhem will guide us to Enoch.” 

Caleb took off as he met with the entrance of the lab that William had come through moments ago. He paused at the doorway as he turned back to William, his eerie blue-eyes shown with a coldness as his deep voice poured into the room, “Do not fail me William.” Hearing the front door close as Caleb met the frosty saturnine air, it left the younger blonde to himself. Silence lingered on as the moment had been still. Walking up to the bloody egg his eyes watered as he spoke out, “I’m sorry, it was all I could do for **her** …and it was all I could do for the both of you. I’ll find a way to fix this, I swear to you.”


	2. The House of Cain Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the body of Christina Braithwhite goes missing from Ardham, Ruby is left to pick up the pieces of what's left. Together with Ji-Ah Ruby unlocks the secrets to her own blood as well as the last living testament of Christina; as the two stumble upon a book known as the Book of Elohim from then on their world is turned upside down as mysterious forces hunt Ruby. Yet within these unfolding secrets a newly revived Order known as House of Adam appears, along with a mysterious man named Caleb. Meanwhile two-hundred years into the future Christina is given another chance at the eternal life, but it is not all that she was expecting as she struggles to get back to her time. Can the wounds that separate Ruby and Christina mend or will the Book of Elohim and Ruby's Blood unlock more secrets and lies?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I am extremely nervous about this chapter, just know in NO WAY do I support Racism, Neo-Nazism, Religious Oppression, Sexism, Colorism, or any other harmful themes on this fic. A fair warning that this chapter has a lot to do with time travel, and religious context you might need to re-read it. Thank you for the support everyone, keep it coming nothing more to say let us get this story underway.

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_**Earth:502** _

_**Coordinates: (2452.397.5097) (302.3489.261)** _

_**Location: Chicago, Hyde Park** _

_**Year: 1955** _

Getting out of the basement the house had been the same as Christina had left it, the smell of her had still been within every corner of the house. Something about the day had been a muggy cloud as winter had been approaching, noticing another white family moving out of the neighborhood Ruby hadn’t dared to step outside for fear of retaliation. For what seemed like the one-hundredth time she looked at the sealed letter with her name on it, she had known it was Christina’s handwriting; but she hadn’t dared to open it in fear of what it said. It had been nearly two weeks since she had been out of her coma, and in ways Ruby had been sure that no one had missed her. Yet before she could ponder anymore a knock came to the door, staring at the silhouette from the living-room window she knew it to be Ji-Ah; and while Ruby found no issue with the nurse, it had been since that night between the two that not many words passed between them. A part of Ruby had felt raw at the thought of her lover’s killer walking free within her home. Ruby thought to how Christina would react, but soon she knew she would have to move on as she knew other neighbors would start to wonder.

Opening the door Ruby spoke up as Ji-Ah came in with an arm full of grocery, “Here let me help.”

“No, I got it. You’ve been sick for the past few mornings. As well as your letting me stay here, and it’s the least I can do to repay you.” The small Korean woman re-affirmed her grip on the bundle; closing the door with her foot a part of Ruby wanted to give her a key, but she couldn’t risk Leti dragging herself to her porch with empty apologies.

“No, it’s nothing like that. After Atticus funeral…Letitia and I talked, and the conversation was…complicated. Even after everything back at Ardham she offered a place for me to stay, but I knew if I stayed things would be more difficult.”

“Hmph…Nothing with my baby sister is ever simple, as a-matter-of-fact all this shit Atticus left isn’t simple, it’s just a damn mess the rest of us are stuck cleaning up,” Ruby tossed out bitterly. The Korean woman had said nothing making Ruby want a reaction even more, but it was in those little moments that she caught a glimpse of the blonde.

Going to the right where the long dinner table sat Ruby followed the Kumiho. Only a few changes remained, as the television had been brought back to the common area and the small portions of litter and dust were cleaned. Ruby had made it a point to camp out within the front room, and although Ji-Ah warned her of the effects of sleeping on the hard-cushioned-couch; the two women never spoke of it again. For two weeks it had been like that, and as they both understood the moment that sunk in Ruby’s gut like a stone, the loneliness had made it no better. Ruby took a small pause, as a diminutive-sad-smirk tingled on her lips. Ruby remembered the first time she had woken up as Dell; she had been terrified as her first instinct had been to get to the Southside, but it had also been Christina’s first instinct to get her back. It had been a morbid dream of dread, yet she found herself moving into Christina’s the next morning after her chance meeting with William at Sammy’s Bar.

It had been after Ruby finding out about Christina and her connection to her mentor, that the two truly started to live within their own world. And while it took Ruby a whole two hours to convince Christina about the ethics of entertaining company during dining hours; Christina found that Ruby had been all the entertainment she needed as her green-eyes hung on her every word. Those days had been simple as she took on the cooking and cleaning duties of the house, while Christina worked in the basement. Even then there had always been a ghost, and this time it was no different and while their moments had been simple; Christina had never spoken of herself only devoting her careful eyes to her studies and Ruby herself. Ruby drifted to the Braithwhite as a whole, it made her think to the life Christina had lived before she arrived. While the Braithwhite had been a woman in many ways, attracting desire from all men that set eyes upon her; behind closed doors she had been another matter as she carried a boyish-quality about her. A part of her suspected that it was leftover traces of William’s energy whenever she crawled from out of him; but a part of her didn’t think so as Ruby knew Christina had been in her own body majority of their time together.

Yet even as they shared their last breakfast together just days before the Equinox, Ruby wondered what kind of life she could have with the blonde. A part of her missed the woman’s comfort as she would read Dante’s Divine Comedy for what seemed like the hundredth time, and while it had been a small compromise and a step down from the television at the dinner table; Ruby missed the way the witch moved. It had been the small things that stabbed at Ruby, from the messy towels on the bedroom floor or the slight wiggle of her nose whenever she had been thinking hard on something. Ruby missed all of the qualities that made Christina whole outside of William and the thought of it widened the painful hole in her heart. Loneliness had left its sweet bitter perfume on her, as she missed the way the light bounced from Christina’s long eyelashes. Ruby longed for her quirks and childish moments, even within the night she would sit up looking at the long table imagining Christina. For nearly two weeks Ruby reshaped the moments in her mind, even while the both of them ate Ruby smiled sadly as she fondly pictured Christina’s green jewels of eyes as they remained glued to the book she read. Christina had been the masculine side of herself when she had been in her own body, and the smooth femininity of her feelings flowed as William. Even as she sat at the head of the long table with her elbow planted firmly down on the fine wood. She looked so sure within her place, even as her own fork dangled loosely from her long fingers. Yet looking back now, she knew that part of Christina had been unsure around her, as it was a sureness Ruby confirmed with her betrayal.

When Ruby thought to those simple moments it had been her elixir that rocked her into a tearful fit of sleep, and as she longed for the warmth of Christina’s hand setting itself on her shoulder as she quietly and kindly thanked her for the meal, the thought melted like snow as she would never share that feeling again. Memories were like glass that cut Ruby as she picked up the pieces she remembered their last drive as they hadn’t held any bones with each other after they had buried Dell; and there were no grudges only moments of guilt for putting Ruby’s life in danger when Christina crashed her car. And as she swore to put the Mark of Cain on her right then and there, it had been a sentiment that Ruby politely rejected in place of her sister.

Absentmindedly Ruby rubbed her stomach as she thought to family, it had been her one weakness that ruined her. A bitter sob slid down Ruby’s throat as she knew ghosts couldn’t raise the living, and for that the musician felt herself grow angry. _You stupid greedy brat, if you had stayed… if we had of stayed_. The thought drifted into air as it held no water; even in pain Ruby could not deny what she had felt as the reality had hit her like a rock, she had thrown away love for the sake of family. The Southside had been her home, and though she longed for the smell of the musky bars and never-ending block-parties she knew her hearts ache couldn’t be healed by that. As her hand skimmed over the red first edition book, the musician had left it at the head of the table. Ruby watched from the doorway of the kitchen as Ji-Ah scrambled about; it had become a daily routine for the two, as she watched helplessly while Ji-Ah filled the room with small-talk.

“Now I know you’ve been sick for these past two weeks; I’ll make you a soup my mother used to make me back home. I know you said you liked that Kimc-”

“I’m pregnant.” A swift silence flooded the room as Ruby continued, “I also know you’re not here just to be some nurse or glorified maid to me, so what I want to know is why are you here. You say your this…Kumiho that can see into the future, so what I **really** want to know is what did you tell my sister,” Ruby asked her voice even and heated.

The woman looked down as she lowered her voice; yet the look only held for a second before meeting to match Ruby’s eyes as she answered, “I told her nothing. Letitia didn’t put me up to any of this.”

“Then why are you here? It’s been damn near two-weeks. What? Are you here in case I wanted to get rid of it,” Ruby boldly accused.

“My powers as a Kumiho are a mystery even to me. That night at the ceremony when I found out you were alive; I saw other moments, as more pieces of Christina burned into me than I thought. I’m here of my own free will, and right now I am here to look after you; it is the reason why Leti doesn’t know that I am here. She still thinks I went back to Korea,” Ji-Ah spoke setting the items in her hand down while she looked out the window to the backyard.

“Well you looked after me, and I made a full recovery. So, I don’t need any more favors and I definitely don’t need any more of this craziness. I can take care of my damn self just fine,” Ruby commanded out heated. Rushing out to follow the musician, she watched as Ruby grabbed her coat making Ji-Ah question her, “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to see Doctor Robinson. Since it seems that you don’t want to tell me why you’re here, and what my sister is up to. I’ll just set everyone’s mind at ease.”

“Are you going to get rid of it?”

“Well its not looking like I have a damn choice at this moment; you don’t have to sugar coat anything to me, I know the world damn sure didn’t. Besides, even if you say your not here for Leti your worried about my child plotting revenge against Tics. I know what you feel for him, and I know its the only reason why you’re here.”

“No, you can’t do that!” Ji-Ah had blocked the doorway her fearful eyes meeting Ruby’s shocked ones, from the fierce woman in front of her something had been unyielding to her soul. Ruby gazed for a moment and under such fierceness she noticed an uncharacteristic fear, but it wasn’t for her physical safety or from her anger but for something else.

The smaller woman started again her eyes pleading, “Please listen to me, I know your feeling lost right now an-”

“You don’t know how the fuck I’m feeling! What you don’t know is how angry I am because of all of this! You don’t even know the confusion that I feel, to know that this child inside me could be fucking Christina’s! And you don’t know the fear that I feel, knowing that people will judge my child for being the best and worst of both worlds. I know the world and The Order of the Ancient Dawn are going to come for my baby out of fear, confusion, retaliation; and I know the Order is going to come because of my baby’s lineage and connection to Christina. You want to know the reason why I’m going? It’s because I’m scared so fucking scared…and I don’t want to be scared anymore. So, no. You don’t know how the fuck I’m feeling!”

Ruby hadn’t felt the fresh tears down her cheeks as she thought she had enough crying to last for a lifetime; but she’d been a waterfall of streaming doubts and inconsistencies, as fear had been the oldest emotion in her.

“You can’t do this think of the baby,” the Korean woman pleaded her eyes wild and desperate.

“I **am** thinking of the baby. Move.”

Shaking her head, the smaller woman spoke out, “No you have to understand if you rid yourself of your baby, you could bring more darkness into the world than you could ever imagine.”

“That’s funny, but newsflash I’m black and my white lover who belonged to a racist and sexist cult is dead; not to mention I’m in Jim Crow America, this cosmic joke can’t get any more darker than this. Just as well for you to sit here for two weeks and you didn’t tell me anything, all this worrying thinking that something was wrong with me thinking that Christina…” Ruby didn’t finish the sentence, but her eyes watered more at the thought of what Christina could’ve done to exact her revenge for her betrayal.

“I know your angry, but you have to trust me I can explain everything to you; but know that I’m not here to harm you or the baby.” Ruby paused as her hand held the doorknob as the Kumiho continued, “I remember you once said that no one like you gets the happy ending, but you have an ending. Just please don’t kill what little love you have left of her, because if you think she’s dead this will really kill her,” Ji-Ah spoke out her eyes watering as she navigated the emotional landscapes of the chocolate woman’s features. Closing her eyes, she set a protective hand to her stomach, as she held back more tears her heart had been lost at what she wanted to do.

“I-I need some air.”

***

Heading upstairs Ruby slowly opened the door, as her body felt the feverish pull within her. Ruby knew there was nothing left within her stomach to pull up; and yet while the scent and presence of Christina all lingered within the room, it settled her oncoming wave of nausea. She walked over to the open window as the lights flickered in between the trees. The open air gave a fresh breeze to her heated skin as it signaled the start of fall. She sat down on the cushioned bed where they had made love within their own bodies for the first time; the musician rubbed a generous hand over the empty space, Ruby knew the right side had always been hers even as the bed was neatly made. Laying down, she smelled the scent of Christina once again before drinking it in deeply. Her eyes looked out to the breeze and then slowly her gaze drifted to the display of butterflies that had been lined up against the walls; her brown-hues closed as the weariness of her bones ached, yet the pain of it had not matched her heart. Like a silent prayer in the night she spoke to the soundless room, “Why did you give me all of this freedom to only make me a slave to your love? Why aren’t you here with me we could’ve dreamed of bigger things.” 

“I never left.” Turning her body there laying on her side was Christina. As if never leaving, a smirk graced the white woman’s lips; and while tears had flooded in Ruby’s eyes like the banks of rivers, she had been speechless. Time had seemed like an insignificant measure as the Braithwhite had been laying next her wearing a simple red dress, she looked at her with all the love in the world as her eyes had grown soft; Ruby had noticed that something mature grew on Christina’s presence. “I-Is this a dream?”

“Would that be something impossible to you if I said yes.” Nodding her head, she’d known the response to be a typical Christina answer. “Where were you? They told me you were dead. There is so much I want to tell yo-” 

“Ruby…Ruby it’s all right I’m here.” Moving in, the warmth of her long soft, slender fingers cupped Ruby’s tear streaked cheeks; this time Christina had moved into her, and their lips met as the musician felt the soft silken lips of her. Ruby didn’t know what part of reality or dream she lingered in, but her body felt heated at her touch as the kiss grew deeper with hunger. Pulling apart the cage in her chest had opened letting Ruby free, there had been no plan or no Leti to interfere; this feeling had been hers and hers alone. And as blonde hair curtained around her, Ruby felt her lover carefully climb on her as the warm moist center of Christina rubbed on her leg. Ruby looked up into the beautiful disaster as greenish hues of blue shined like jaded-topaz; their lips never broke apart as the red-dressed-witch carefully spoke upon Ruby’s own wavering lips. “How frozen I became and powerless then, ask it not, reader, for I write it not, all language would be insufficient. I did not die, and I alive remained not.”

Closing her lips on her once again; the kiss was short as the blonde pulled back her eyes raking over her lovers’ body like a beast would prey. Huskily her breath drew out a command as smooth as silk, “Now…open your mouth for daddy.” 

The plea died on Ruby’s lips as she obeyed; and as the warmth of her lover’s tongue mixed and fought with her own, a budding grew in her loins. The kiss had grown deeper as Ruby’s folds grew wet with desire within the heated ecstasy of comfort; and as Ruby felt Christina drink in every inch of her, she felt long digits reach possessively for her breast signaling a jolt in her skin. Rubbing the thick clothed mound in her hungry hand, the blonde took a small nervous nipple between her slender fingers. Ruby held her legs together in a weakened attempt to hold in the flood that had been starting to ruin her underwear. And as the hand regretfully left her breast, her lovers lips followed. Opening her top dress buttons with her skillful teeth, like hot dragging coals Christina’s lips moved over her chest before taking a clothed nipple into her mouth. Ruby felt a hand slowly trail down her body, but she felt a hand stop to her belly and a mouth withdraw.

The glossy misted eyes of both lovers looked to each other. In this moment there were no words to say, and silently Ruby knew. Christina drew back a small earnest smile it had been the first time that Ruby seen the blonde weakened nearly to the point of tears. “Those dreams I desired, those ambitions I wanted to conquer, and those bright stars I wanted to touch…they are no longer mine; those ambitious bright dreams are for **her** now. Name her Thea for the better woman she will become, and name her that for the better woman I couldn’t be. Let our daughter be free to be uninterrupted. Please promise me Ruby.” 

Tears finally fell as Ruby nodded them away her voice breaking, “I-I promise.” Reaching up to kiss her lover their tears mingled as distant screams of a woman and the voices of two men called; she had not known their names, but a name had rung in Ruby’s ear. She watched as the warmth of Christina left as she got up from the bed, setting herself up sadness melted from Ruby’s brown eyes like snow in a wind-kept summer. Screams grew as Ruby heard the distant name of Caleb; and worry closed in on her face as Ruby watched as the red-dressed-witch headed for the bedroom door.

“W-Where are you going? What’s happening,” Ruby asked. The door opened with a rush of wind, making Ruby only see a blackened void that rested beyond the Braithwhite. The screams grew louder as all of it almost broke her. Covering her ears, Ruby curled her body into a ball to fend off the shrieks but to no avail. The room shook as the walls crumbled and crowded; and through watered-eyes she saw the void of black night turn into a raging red fire. The musicians voice died behind the cries; and as Ruby’s mouth moved only to be soundless, she remained frozen as she watched Christina step into the fire. Lastly looking back to Ruby, muted words spilled from the Braithwhite’s lips, as her body burned.

[Language of Adam]

“No!”

Rushing across the bed, Ruby stopped in her tracks as a deep steering pain burned into her side. Lifting the top to her dress a strange mark appeared on the side of her ribs, the raised flesh sat upon her branding her like one would do cattle. It was the same mark she had seen on Christina the night they made love as themselves, it was the Mark of Cain. Before she could question the strange mark that visited her skin; the door shut as the ceiling fell around her. And as all of it came crashing on her like waves against a stone-stepped-shore, Ruby knew she would have to awaken and painfully she did.

***

“Christina, Thea!”

Snapping up, sweat heavily drenched Ruby’s brow and frantically she looked around. Her eyes buzzed from corner to corner within the room and as Ruby had saw no crumbling stones or bold fires; she listened out, and had not heard the life of day as it had melted into the last embers of a gleaming sunset. Glancing to everything around her she noticed the emptied wall where the collection of winged-creatures once had been. Ruby stared up a disbelieving smile trailed on her face, hovering above her like a halo were a colorful batch of butterflies. _What is this?_ Noticing one who strayed from the group the blue and black wings trailed down to her like soft snow; and as the musicians eyes followed to the empty side of the bed, the small messenger landed on the red-dress that sat beside her.

Picking up the dress it had been warmly worn, as it smelled of Christina. Ruby questioned herself out loud her brow heavy with confusion, “That wasn’t a dream was it? No, I’m losing my mind but that dress…it wasn’t here when I arrived.” Moving she winced in pain, making her lift the top part of her dress. Raised darkened flesh sat on her skin triumphantly; and while brown eyes traced the pattern, Ruby knew it had to be the Mark of Cain. “What’s happening to me?” 

“It seems someone or something is telling you something. Who is Thea,” Ji-Ah asked as she leaned against the frame of the open bedroom door.

“How do you know that name? Did you put this shit here,” Ruby swiftly accused heated as she pointed at the red dress her brows full of furrowing and blame.

Watching a black and yellow butterfly land on the Korean woman’s awaiting finger she answered, “No I didn’t do that. As for the name I only know of it because I heard Christina say it the night of the Equinox; and just right now before you woke up, I heard you say it again. It doesn’t take me being a Kumiho to see that magic is still within this place. I just can’t figure out if it’s the baby telling you something or if its someone else.”

“So, what **can** you tell me? Because this damn sure isn’t something that’s a part of the normal grieving process.”

“I can’t tell you much because there are things that I do not even know, but I’m sure Hippolyta and Letitia would know about this. Christina was a talented sorceress; and I’m sure traces of her power still linger here frozen until time moves on.”

_Frozen_

Remembering the dream, Ruby had heard the words creep behind her throat and she remembered the mouthed words, “How frozen I became and powerless then, ask it not, reader, for I write it not, because all language would be insufficient. I did not die, and I alive remained not.” Rushing downstairs like a hurricane, Ruby came to the dining room table as the red-book had remained undisturbed. With Ji-Ah following behind her she wondered what the black beauty had planned.

“Ruby?”

“Where is it. There is!” Finding the page something buzzed to life in Ruby, and as she looked up at the passage that rang within her dreams; the words reflected at her as she spotted the underlined passage. Going to the coffee table where she left the letter, she ripped it open reading the contents. Noticing the forms, once again her brow hung in confusion as she spoke into the air, “These are property forms, and my name is signed on them; but this isn’t my handwriting.”

“Let me see.” Passing over the paperwork a thought hovered on the edge of Ruby’s mind, yet she could not grasp the thought to make it whole again. “It looks like these papers were issued right out of Dunning,

“That’s to the West of the Northside and not too far from us,” Ruby added with less edge in her voice.

Ji-Ah continued as she read on, “It also says the one who certified everything was someone by the name of Jonah Levin. The paperwork only reads as a Transfer of Assets but look…next to your signature it was dated on the day of the Equinox.”

“What!” Shock had stunned the musician as she looked to the paper noticing that the signature had been an almost perfect match to hers; but within the lettering Ruby could tell it had been Christina’s own handwriting. With the name coming back to her the thought surfaced like the morning sun.

“I know that name.”

“Who? You mean Jonah Levin?” Flipping to the back of the book, Ruby noticed the elegant handwriting that had been within the back. “I think we might’ve found Jonah.” Holding up the book Ji-Ah’s almond-shaped eyes stared up, awaiting the next piece of the puzzle as she spoke, “What does this mean exactly?”

“I guess we’re paying Mr. Levin a visit tomorrow.”

“Ruby, what are you looking for exactly?”

“I’ve known Christina for a while now; and one thing I do know is that she doesn’t do things just to do it. Christina is careful and calculated...with everything,” Ruby inquired.

“Even with loving you.”

A small smile lingered on Ruby’s face, “Yes even with that. In her white-lily mind she always has a plan; that dress you saw next to me when I woke up, it wasn’t just some strange random thing that happened. Christina was wearing that same dress in my dream, and then I woke up and the Mark of Cain was back on me. She is the **only** one who knows that spell, no one else knows it.”

“So, what does that mean?”

“I don’t know. Earlier you asked me to trust you Ji-Ah. That is why I’m going to place my trust in you with this and if you tell Leti that will be up to you. I think…Christina might be alive.”

***

_**Saturn: 504** _

_**Coordinates:**_ ( _ **6688.737.6668) (3361.507.1388)**_

_**Location: Mountains of the Titan** _

_**Year: 2155** _

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_The air on Saturn had been thick and cold, as the hazy-yellow sand and rock-molded-mountains approached their eyes. Forged in sand and stone the summit’s stared at them, yet as such masses of towered rock looked upon the strangers, they drank in the deep dyed blood of the sky that pushed against the storm. Dressed in black-hooded-robes only the light from their torches could be seen in the storm; and as they crawled into the poisonous valley of mountains that loomed like giants over them, excitement sat on their skin. William sighed as he knew these mountains well. They had been called the Mountains of the Titan, with flashing bolts of Magenta and Yellow the sky had cried out. Twelve of them gathered as they were_ swarthy, slender, and sinister _; and while six of them carried the bloody-blackened sack, the cold trail of blood had been wind-swept by the red colored sands that had been dyed by the sky. They had all been members within the House of Cain, men meant to serve the will of his father._

Cringe curdling screams had pulled against the sack as it now had turned black like chilled blood; and like the ragged creatures back in his father’s lab, William heard her howls spill into the crawling chaos of night. The screams of pain had only dulled his footsteps to the desert they now trailed in. William had saw the slender-sleek-fingers, pull more against the leathery membrane of the shell. Yet even amongst the animalistic howls, his hand tightened on the two lines of rope. William gave a side eye to the two bound and gagged uniformed strangers that sat behind him; their faces had been covered with black bags. And while their hands were bound behind them; William led them by the neck like a Sheppard to slaughter, the sinking pit of despair grew in him. _This is all I can do for her; this is all I can do please forgive me._ He looked to the tall black back of his father as he led the dozen. It had nearly been the Witching Hour and while the storms of the red sky drank the world; hell plunged from the sky bringing whipping winds to the small party. William could smell the arousal of fear within the air, and it made his skin crawl with trepidation.

He looked back to the prisoners once more. They been from Earth and were soldiers that served the Sons of Seraphina; and as they had all been under the command of their deserted Commander Hippolyta, he thought to the other that took her place. In truth William had held respect for such a woman as she had been a fighter of nearly immortal prowess. Unlike him she had been a creature of a different nature, made of machine, blood, and bone. He knew that her leave had been a devastating loss to the Sons of Seraphina, and William knew with her leave those of Earth held no true inspiration within the war that divided them for two centuries. The House of Adam and the Sons of Seraphina had been a bloody battle drawn back through the nameless decades, and the blood of the fallen had bred inconceivable dimensions of death, horror, and hell. For nearly two centuries the two rivals fought, with magic and science, madness, and mind; but none from each side had submitted. As they reached the incline of the mountain. William pulled the rope harder as the dragging feet of the captors started to annoy him.

 _When will all this end?_ Reaching the summit of the mountain a black altar had sat longingly in smooth stone; lightning whipped the wind again, and as he heard is father command the six set down the shell upon the altar. The smell of rotted flesh pierced his nostrils, as the wind of it blew his way. William had seen this before with the other members of his house, and his gut dreaded what would happen next. Standing around the dais of the altar the lights of their torches flickered in the harsh wind. William took his place outside the circle, and as his father had stood front and center near the twisting blackness; Caleb pulled back his hood. From the inner-lining of his robes he took out a chalice that had been as black as night, the cup had been lined with rubies as red as stars as something ominous dwelled upon it. On his hand gold had lined his ring-finger as the Sign of Saturn hung present, all eighty-eight houses had held such a ring; it been a homage to the first founders of their world the explorers known as the Sons of Saturn. Later it would be their descendants who would go on to plant the seeds for the House of Adam to flourish.

Caleb holding up his hand to silence the night as William listened in. “Two-Hundred-Years ago it is said that magic had faded from our blood; and to such a nature our ancestors thought such a power forever lost. And yet what is lost can be found; it had been from our forbearers and their dedication to the greater good, that their pain remade them. We have heard the tales that only those black beasts could wield magic, but thanks to the greater sciences and the power of blood transfusion we still live. Today magic still flows in our veins and **I** say we are not dead yet! We the chosen few, stand here in solidarity tonight as we are on the cusp of history; we are marked from the blood of Samuel Braithwhite himself and destined for greater things. Yet the House of Adam says we are impure because the blood of those beasts flows in us; and yet the House of Adam speaks of peace between us and the Sons of Seraphina! I say great ones, what cause do we need to plead with niggers! It was from white-man’s guilt that led to our downfall on Earth Two-Hundred Years Ago, and the House of Adam wishes to repeat history!”

Black hooded stares and nodded agreements came from the others, yet they were once again silenced by Caleb as he continued, “It was my goal to bring this great gift to the House of Adam, but after today I say no such thing will happen on Saturn’s great soil. Tonight, I say damn the House of Adam! I am Caleb Braithwhite of the House of Cain and I shall rip out the rootless tree that Adam has planted into the minds of our women and children! All of you who have gave your mind, soul, and body to me have seen the fruits of my labor and have felt the love I have for you. We are something the Houses of Adam are not; we have evolved from our shell as humans as we are the true Children of Cain. We are true Sons of Saturn my Brothers and Sisters, tonight our great Aryan hope will rise from her shell and bring this hellish world anew. For decades, the Rule of One has guided all eighty-eight houses, and for years they have told us that all houses under Adams rule could only hold one spell; but those are human limitations. With this hope we have before us, we will transcend those limitations in more ways than one. Tonight, we have become an undying ember, we will live on for centuries and eons as none have before. Here before us is a great descendant of the line of Braithwhite. With her awakening she will teach us the words from the Book of Elohim, and we will spell our bodies to become more powerful and smite the Five Great Houses of Adam. We will hold the power to create and destroy, and from then we will build a great city in our own **true** image. We will see the paradise of Enoch and so our great work shall begin!”

Thunder and lightning bucked like a wild mare, as William stepped forward along with the two prisoners. He kicked both down as they sat on their knees, their panicked voices trembling into the night. From the East and West of the circle two of his father’s men broke away stepping forward into the center; William readied himself for the words as if he had spoken them all his life. The basis of magic had been a rigid law full of Energy, Intention, Location, Body and Incantation, methods he had known all his born life. While the two servants of his father held the slaughtered and hollowed bloody heads of a ram and bear; William had dared to speak. The gleam from his eyes had faded into a dull and almost dark blue as he raised a hand reaching up to the stars to feel the energies within himself.

**_I call to the terrible phantasm of night._ **

**_I call to the monstrous abyss that eats the land_ ** **_._ **

**_I weep upon the pale pitying moon._ **

**_And I slumber upon the stars._ **

**_Oh! Great old and new ones grant us passage upon our gifts!_ **

**_From the East I bring the Ram, full of Intention._ **

**_From the West I bring the Bear, full of Incantation._ **

**_From the North I bring the Body of Man and the Womb of Woman, full of resolve._ **

William’s hand slowly fell, the world had gone cold and silent as his turquoise eyes opened. The storm shrunk away opening the night. Passing clouds ripped open for a moment and at last he saw the stars, the world reaching thin and silent unto the wind as tears streaked his face. Upon his fevered imaginings he saw a perfect alignment upon the brow of stars, and he knew the heavens had never lied. _She will stop him; I know she will! Please save them! This is all I can do please; I give my strength to you Christina._ Hearing the voice of his father his tears faded like morning mist, as he stepped up facing him.

“And who brings such severed ways to this night?”

**_I, the Wolf. I serve the South and I know of its greater energies. I have traveled upon the terrible phantasm of night. I have starved while the monstrous abyss eats this land_ ** **_. I have wept upon the pale pitying moon and, I’ve slumber upon the stars. To you I give such gifts._ **

“To what shall we call the wolf of man?”

“William Braithwhite from the House of Cain. A man born of man, a child unto children.”

Instantly the black bag was taken off both strangers heads, their black skin had pulsed with panic; and while their brown eyes were widened and wild with beady-eyed-fear, they frantically looked around. It had been a man and a woman as they were a couple of years older than himself. The soon-to-be victims had wiggled and screamed against their gags and bindings; and his father lowered his hood making their eyes look up at their executioner. William had seen amongst the bright clouded moons of Saturn the thick black shine of a dagger that held itself tightly in his father’s hand, and the black chalice held firmly in his other. Holding the keen tip against the forehead of the panicked man and at the squealing woman, their cries of help mingled with her salted sobs.

“Your offer has been more than fruitful. Vinum Sabbathi!”

Against the air all twelve had chanted in unison, “Vinum Sabbathi!” Daring to glance away William could not as he watched the two terrified faces, as they had been covered with the decapitated Goat and Bear head, and as his father had said the words time and time again the wind listened to the word of Cain.

[Language of Cain] The storm gathered as the body’s in Williams roped grip squirmed; and as their muffled screams were drowned by the chants from others, he held on tighter as he’d been too weak to let go.

“Vinum Sabbathi!”

[Language of Cain] The blade had moved to the bear-headed man’s throat. The repeated and howling mindless and dull words came from the other ten.

“Vinum Sabbathi!” The clouds picked up quicker as more lightning cracked in the background. The black shell moved more as his father’s words gained more volume singing along with the re-approaching storm.

[Language of Cain] The blade moved from ear to ear, as the sound of fading life slipped from the body below him. William held on tightly to the rope as the man in his hand struggled; for the gurgling of blood that caught in his throat was all that he heard. It took only seconds as the dead man’s blood pooled like a hanging waterfall to fill the black chalice. William heard the others hunger, as the last light from him extinguished.

“Vinum Sabbathi!” Releasing the first strand of rope, the man’s body dropped as blood and sand mingled. Stepping to the side the shrieks of the ram-headed woman sat under him, and the chants grew louder in harmony as his father’s words grew fierce like a blazing fire.

[Language of Cain] The storm once again knocked as sands kicked up within the wind. The crackling sound of glass competed with the storm, as a black bloody hand finally broke from the shell that sat on the altar. Like a child taking its first breath into the world a screamed opened into the air. She was coming.

“Vinum Sabbathi!”

[Language of Cain] The blade had moved to the ram headed woman, as the last of her cries seemed like a memory as William gave one more tight pull. The smell of her blood had stung his nostrils like some rotted crumbling corpse.

“Vinum Sabbathi!” Another hand broke free as he released the last rope on the dead, his father’s maddened smile grew as he raised the chalice to the sky.

[Language of Cain] The smell of deathly decay and old blood pulled away as more of the body pushed past the black leathery sack.

“Vinum Sabbathi!” Black blood spilled upon the altar, the thick liquor glistening like jet black metal upon a moonless night glow. As the torches fluttered like flags against the stormed wind, their red colored flamed shined like golden glass against the moist slab.

[Language of Cain] A form raised from the sack. The body had been covered in blood as black as tar. It had been a woman.

“Vinum Sabbathi!” She gave one last pained scream, before her own weight crumbled into an inarticulate black-blood-covered mystery.

[Language of Cain] William looked to her, as he noticed the blonde matted hair that had been littered with unknown flesh and blood. Her body had been slender and smooth like a newly-forged spear. On shaking feet, she used the black slab as she rose slowly and weakly. 

“Vinum Sabbathi!” His father kneeled as everyone else had followed him; and as the words of Cain had died from his father’s lips, he joined the chant.

“Vinum Sabbathi!” A crack of lightning hit beside them, making them all jump. The mountains moaned as wind picked up a fantastic flare of flame as a nearby tree burned. 

“Vinum Sabbathi!” Falling to his own knees William watched the black-blooded woman rise slowly, as the shrieking flames danced like red lovers behind her.

“Vinum Sabbathi!” The words had stopped as night blood creeped from the awakened woman’s mouth, the thick liquid spilling to her small bosom. She had shown no shame to her nude form, and she had been too confused to care. Bloody and nearly dyed her form ridiculed the night; the storm had stopped again as the few whips of thunder and lightning rode into the distance. William said nothing as he heard his father’s vocal organs clumsily grope at each syllable. “Behold Mother of Madness and welcome. I am Caleb Braithwhite, head of the House of Cain and I am blood of your blood, Mind of your Mind, Soul of your Soul. Please drink this as my offering to you.”

Slowly a weakened shaking hand had took the black chalice; William watched as she drank the dread deep, and as red stained her lips her mouth slightly hung with a gape showing a hint of her newly forged fangs. And as if she had found water, she drank the last down greedily. William stared up at her blank cold stare as he looked to the audacious body, as his father nodded to him quickly. As William stood taking off his black-cloak, he wrapped it around her shoulders holding the slightly smaller woman in a half-embrace. She looked up at him, and as their eyes caught hold of each other, a familiarity imprinted itself within her eyes as she held his features. The closer she looked, something else lingered in him that had been painfully apart of her; and on a shaking lip laboriously she spoke out, “William is that…you.”

Standing up the rest of the members had as well as Caleb’s cold eyes turned warm, “That is my son William Braithwhite…he is your great, great, great, great grandson.”

“Grandson…I…don’t…Where am I? When am I?”

“You are on Saturn two-hundred years into the future. It was from you fixing Hiram’s Time Machine after Atticus Freeman broke it that we were able to find you. I have waited a long time to meet you. Now, come let us warm our bones; we have much to explain dear mother.”

***

Now in clean clothes, Christina had been suited in a simple black dress that clung to her form. It had been in the same style she had it tailored to nearly two-hundred years ago. Christina had walked to the darkened stain-glassed-window staring out aimlessly; the Braithwhite thought to the drive back, and how it had been silent as they gathered into the oddly shaped Jeep. And as blood dried on her skin as on lookers wept and gathered around the man; the blonde had come to know her rescuer as Caleb, and yet a fire burned in her. He looked so identical to her father; yet in mannerisms she knew something crawled under the surface of that freezing pale moon of a face. She looked to her room as it had been a replica of her old room back at Ardham; for a moment, the witch had thought herself to be in hell amongst the men who called themselves gods. Yet even within a driftless dream of shock Christina’s mind shattered that cold shell of home; remembering her father’s death as she sabotaged his own spell. As lush green forests surrounded them, they looked like shadowed shrubs as night carried on; the sky sung with an unknown trepidation, while thick rings that sailed slowly in the sky grinned at her. Thick rocks made of ice and dust floated weightlessly; all of it recreated its own aurora of dimly golden spun yellows.

This was no hell nor dream; Christina knew she was no longer on Earth. She wanted to mark off the moment as a listing of firsts, and yet the circumstances outweighed her childishness. In her wonder the lesser peaks of her mind had been inhabited by the need of survival and the need to know of the place she had awoken in. A tittering thought drifted into Christina’s mind as she thought to Caleb, and the truth of him being family; and while confusion washed over her she had doubts of such a man for if he had been her family as he stated, she would need a spell to insure herself from his plans.

[Language of Adam] Nothing came to her as she remembered the last moments she saw, and Leti’s words.

_“Magic belongs to us now.”_

Tears threatened to come to her but instead an anger plunged into the pit of her heart. _Tic had taken it away…they all took it away._ Her fists balled up at her sides as hot tears dared to roll down her cheeks. Her blood boiled hot, as the one thing that gave Christina weight within the world had been stripped from her. In an uncharacteristic anger, the heiress kicked the nearest chair next to her. The wood had been sent flying into the wall breaking with ease; no pain came to her, but she felt the keen pitch of lower and upper canine teeth, and just before she could question the oddity of her body a knock came to her door.

Opening the door Christina noticed a waiting William. Gathering an eye full of him, the former witches cold stare remained on guard even as he looked nervously at her. He’d been dressed to the nines; sporting a finely pressed black and white tuxedo, his blonde hair had been combed back neatly as a lopsided grin spilled into his voice. “Excuse me grandmother…I mean…great ancestor…Ms. Braithwhite. My father wishes me to escort you to the lab before our outing for dinner.”

“That depends, do I have a choice?”

“I can assure you everything is a choice, but I’m sure you have so many questions and surely we have many answers we can provide you with. Or you can have dinner on the veranda.” Reaching a point within his logic slowly she walked out the door. Christina looked at the young man’s awaiting arm as she reluctantly whispered another spell before taking his invitation.

“There is no need for any spells here Ms. Braithwhite. I can assure you no one is here to harm you; in that I can give you my word.”

“Your word as a Braithwhite or something else?” They walked as the floorboards creaked just as she remembered, and yet she had not dared to think of any more past echoes.

“You don’t believe us to be part of your line,” William spoke into the silence. Breaking apart the two looked at each other, and as the smug smirk enlisted itself on his face; Christina noted that it mirrored her own right down to the letter.

“Well since your powers of deduction are painfully spot on; I think you need to re-evaluate your story.”

That cocky smirk widened as the young man found his footing. “Do I now?”

“Well considering that I had no children and killed the last of my family in a botched Immortality Spell; along with the painful fact that your father stated that I was two hundred-years into the future. I would say that all of this is a spell, or it is at least one I cannot figure out yet. That and there is no way that I would want a son, yet alone a great, great, great, great grandson,” Christina spoke out looking up to the ceiling as if trying to find the fragments within a dream.

His pearly inhuman white fangs like her own gave a hitch of a chuckle, as he wore her insult like a finely made armor, “As much as I value your suspicions and convictions; I can tell you that what my father speaks of is true, you are on the planet Saturn and the year is 2155. Now if you will…please.”

He offered his arm again as she took it while he continued, “My father has followed you for a long time, well actually all of our family has. Let me get down to the bare bone of it; I know you don’t want my father to know about your little secret, but he does.”

“And just **what** does he know exactly,” Christina asked hoping her latest fear would not be discovered.

“My father knows that you used the Metamorphosis Spell to wear the skin of William Davenport. Also, he knows that you got a Ruby Baptiste pregnant, and he knows that you are the mother to that child,” William smoothly spoke out.

The two both headed downstairs slowly, as she gauged the man on her arm; yet after dealing with Atticus and her unfortunate death she had earned a small cruel streak.

“You’ve been watching me.”

“No. Most of what we know about you took time and research; all the information we have been privy to had been from your own notes that we have acquired. It was from them that we knew how to recreate this place brick by brick.”

“You say your father knows that I got Ruby pregnant, but what makes you so sure that baby is even mine; a glamour is not the same as creating life. Even by factual standards, what you are saying holds no weight; when I wore the skin of William Davenport it was purely for personal means to further my plans.”

“Are you sure that’s all,” William challenged.

“Yes, I’m sure that is all William,” Christina countered lacing her descendants name in fire in hopes of covering her worry. He looked at her incredulously as he broke apart from her, this time she stood at the top of the stairs while he lingered two steps below her.

“You are free to believe whatever you must, but know that I am a friend here,” William said with a slight bow.

“You’re a friend, but who are my foes?”

The young man ignored the question as his eyes were all knowing. “I know you are familiar with Hiram’s Time Machine and his theory about Parallel Universes, and I know you fixed his machine just days before the Equinox. I have to say you impress me every day. My question is why did you fix the machine?”

Christina had gone silent to the question; and while William took the quiet as an answer, he picked up the lesson with swagger in his voice. “You see with Hiram there were ways he got time travel right, and there were other ways he got it wrong as Hiram wanted to compound and change Horatio’s Theory. It is known that over sixty-trillion possibilities exist, and those of a common and simpler mindset see these possibilities as the multiple expansions of single universes. The fault with such a simple theory is that it puts such possibilities in a box and labels them as their own individual entities, and the theory makes entities exist on their own plains of existence. However, little did Hiram know that such possibilities are set in our universe, and no possibility can exist on its own time or its own plain.”

“Meaning no one plain of existence can carry more than one possibility as time is already written before we can even dream of the concept; it is The Law of One and the Rhythm of Time,” Christina added knowingly.

A coy smile slid on Williams lips. “It seems like you did study Horatio’s Stolen Pages; I better watch out, as it seems that magic hasn’t lost itself on you yet Ms. Braithwhite.”

“Not in the ways that count,” Christina coldly snapped letting him carry on. “My father has always told me that time even within its chaos is organized and meticulous. However, the Law of One and the Rhythm of Time only speaks for the unmasked future. Now the past is more difficult in nature as many forget what once was, thus many possibilities flourish; yet you cannot change the true rhythm and flow of time, even if you are woven into the pattern. Like a spell there are many combinations you can mold, and so long as it fits into the narrative or the root of true history you can pass by time unnoticed. For example, when Atticus and Hippolyta Freeman found Hiram’s Orrery and stepped inside their own possibilities not once but twice; they doomed your ascension from the start.”

“If they went into a possibility and if they were meant to how could it affect me,” Christina asked hopefully.

“When Atticus stepped into the future and then once again further into the past to retrieve the Book of Names; he ended his own possibility and life. The living cannot take from the past nor the future, it creates a loop onto itself that time will surely cut. To simply put it Atticus Freemans actions were his own, that was until he connected to you. After that, his death merged to your life.”

“You say that the living cannot take from the past nor future, but you took me.”

“Time is set in stone and the ink has dried, but often stories are left untold. You will find out that you, my father, me, and the rest of the members from this house do not apply to such a rule. Our blood and essence are something…special.”

“So…that thing connected Atticus and I...”

“The Kumiho. As I am sure you know there are all manner of creatures outside of us. The Kumiho are nine-tailed-foxes who can see into the past, present, and future souls of people but only do they get fragments. The Kumiho that had been with Atticus was not of the living; the thing that possessed that girls body used her until she reached the end of her life cycle. Yet she was the one to interfere with your future, Atticus Freeman was a variable thread of time she wanted to save; but like the Rings of Saturn itself he had been nothing more than a piece of dust drifting in the cosmic flow of the world.”

“And what about the other one Hippolyta?”

“Ah yes. As for Hippolyta Freeman she is the same neither living nor dying, as Seraphina made her of blood, bone, and metal. By that Seraphina killed her and Hippolyta integrated herself into time completely; for Hippolyta she could freely step into time unbothered and uninterrupted. When one dies in the past only to live in the future, they become a number within the coordinates of the sixty-trillion possibilities that are set in time. So, in a way you and she are nothing and everything, you are boundless ghosts trapped in the flesh of man. Yet, our enemies seem to think otherwise.”

“And just what do your enemies think?”

“Our Enemies the Sons of Seraphina believe that the one named Hippolyta spent two-hundred years this side of the world meeting the goddess Seraphina herself. The Sons of Seraphina believe time moves slow yet fast at the same time; yet simply that is not true. To simply put it a week in the past cannot equate to two-hundred-years in our future, and what seemed like two-hundred years to Hippolyta Freeman when she figured out Hiram’s Time Machine, was rationally a week our time. Her mind had woven itself into the pattern; and it is one of the side-effects of time travel, especially when she left once again for the past. They see Hippolyta Freeman as a savior as the Sons of Seraphina believe Earth 502 and their Earth 504 to be different universes based on more than questionable time, but they are wrong within their logic. The House of Adam only use the numbers of five, zero and four as it is based on…”

“The number Five is based on God’s Grace creating his Intention. Zero is based on the finding of Mesopotamia, thus the Location of all civilization as we know it. Four is the day of god creating the material universe, making space itself the Body of stars. Intention, Location, and Body. Gods miracles are no different than magic; the only thing that is different is getting the right fool to believe in the wrong thing.”

“You catch on well,” William spoke out impressed.

“My father Samuel Braithwhite was obsessed with numerology. Numbers itself had been how many of the Lodges crafted their spells when it came to the Language of Adam, but they were too lazy and complacent to put effort into what they knew. I could have shown them so much if they let me, but their pride as men would not allow them to have a woman amongst their ranks. No matter, my father and I ran a fool’s errand chasing impossible dreams; as I’m sure you know the Language of Adam is forever closed to me.”

“I can assure you Ms. Braithwhite there are no Lodges with that ideology. There is only enlightenment. The present often carries precedence over the past, but you and I are of a different breed,” William promised.

As she remembered the two black bodies that laid behind her supposed saviors, Christina firmly spoke out, “And what kind of breed is that.”

“Something my father intends to explain to you.”

“I’ve had enough fathers lecturing me for a lifetime; and since I am practically your ancestor and you say this is no spell, all of this would require me to ask how everything is possible. For all the the places to create a civilization why Saturn. What? Did adaptability really scare white men that much?”

“I’m sure you know just months before your death, the great Space Race began. Each country bidding for power over the masses.”

“I saw something of it, but at the time my plans were more crucial to my goals.”

“Well aside from your death and the magic that had been taken away from us **Aryans** , in 1955 the Space Race began. It was after your death that the Order of the Ancient Dawn fell apart; and as fighting and bloodshed began between the Lodges, the outside world changed as well. African American’s took to fighting against Jim Crow after the world saw the horrors of Emmett Till. And while many members gave up their rings and resigned to society to counter such resistance; there were others who wanted to combine science and logic to their work. The overall goal was to restore magic to us white men, yet many searched and failed. It was not until Alexander Winthrop a long-lost descendant of Horatio Winthrop came back to Chicago with a mysterious book in hand. According to the story he had gotten it from the distant deserts of Africa; the legend says that Alexander met a man by the name of Mr. Nyarlathotep Whiteman on a voyage to Ethiopia. Winning the book in a drunken card game, sooner or later the book would shape our destiny as we have come to know the book as the Book of Elohim.”

“I wasn’t aware that Winthrop had a son.”

“He was a bastard that came from an affair; and rather than let him join their ranks The Order of the Ancient Dawn declined him claiming his blood to be tainted. Yet Alexander had been obsessed with the idea of his ancestor’s legacy and magic. That is why when Mr. Whiteman told him about the Book of Elohim and its ability to restore magic, Alexander grew ecstatic at the possibilities. However, when Alexander had opened the book only to find that empty pages remained; Alexander demanded to know about Mr. Whiteman’s scheme. And to his answer Nyarlathotep told him to fill it with eighty-eight spells; as only then would magic return to us.”

“Surely no man is that patient,” Christina added as they both headed to the door, as the younger man looked her up and down his guard relaxing around her, he agreed.

“No one who has tasted true magic is patient. Yet Alexander had found his first spell in those sands; and it had been when he came to Chicago that he started a new order known as the House of Adam. With the new members piecing together the connection between African Americans and magic; the members found those who had high probability for such talents, as they acquired it through blood transfusions. Yet even with the blood of magic within us; we few were limited in our capabilities of the craft, and so Alexander and Doctor Hemric Lindencroft began their great work together.”

“You said there were eighty-eight spells, how was that acquired? Surely you wouldn’t let that information slip through your fingers.”

“According to legend Alexander Winthrop died young after getting the book; and with him only completing the first five spells of the book, the last eighty-three spells are a mystery of how they came to be. However, with Alexander dying soon the Houses of Adam would fight over the book; it was only after eighty years it would finally find a new holder. After seeing the damage caused by greed, a powerful spell known as the Bond of Lilith would be created. Like the Book of Names and its seal, the Bond of Lilith had been a powerful spell that bonded one spell of the Book of Elohim to each of the eighty-eight families. The spell itself only uses specific names of the bible itself to which we identify ourselves. One house, one name, one role and one spell; thus, the Law of One. It is the very core of the rules in which we live by even today.”

“And by circumstance what would happen if one were to master more than one spell from the book?”

“In that I cannot tell you.”

“You mean you don’t know, or your choosing not to tell me.”

“To make sure that none of us would seek anymore power; the Bond of Lilith not only sealed the spell to each family, but our sight of other spells as well. As a member of the House of Cain, we have the power to create; whereas let’s say the House of Abel has the power to protect, I cannot see Abel’s methods of spell craft any more than they can ours.”

“How interesting that the Order of the Ancient Dawn has fallen under its own weight, then again gluttonous men often do. The way you speak of magic is different from how my father and his associates spoke of magic, they thought the means of magic to be like money or something frivolous in nature. My father wished to return to the paradise Adam once came from, for him the changing of the world around him felt like hell. Yet that does not answer my question about this place. So is it paradise or hell,” Christina probed her eyes looking up to the wood crafted ceiling, before coming down again. 

“After the fighting ceased and after Alexanders untimely death, it was amongst the eighty-eight houses that Doctor Hemric Lindencroft would take charge; and it would be his great-grandson Eric Lindencroft that the Houses of Adam would cement and unite against its true goal. You see in the year 2035 racial tensions between the races on Earth would collide between political parties. The Great Sin of America would rise to fester like an untreated wound; and even though Jim Crow had died nearly seventy-years ago from that time, those below rose to those above as a grand coalition of races rioted, killed white politicians, and terrorized law enforcement. The world had lost itself as people set fire to all the institutions that their oppressors created. To take control of such a chaos, a group known as the Sons of Seraphina led and founded by the grandson of Diana Freeman took to the streets. They had told the truth about magic and our means of acquiring it; as Horace Freeman himself led the charge. So as governments around the world fell one by one, the Sons of Seraphina had been formed; but in the chaos it would be Eric Lindencroft from the House of Abel who would shepherd us to a new world. He and his family along with the greater sciences at his disposal would go on to perfect his own variation of the Invulnerability Spell. It ensured us of life upon the cosmos as he and his kin would go on to colonize the planet, they would be named in history as the First Sons of Saturn. It would be our family and a few others that would tame the terrain, farm, and raise our descendants. Many seeds had been planted, and as we moved on to build grand cities and explore the unfounded truth and potential of his planet; most of the eighty-eight families would stay to fight the Sons of Seraphina for nearly two-decades.”

“Were there others who came aside from the eighty-eight houses?”

“Yes, there were other powerful players on Earth that would leave with us and grow what we have within the Global Market. It isn’t until the birth of my father that each of the eighty-eight houses would settle fulfilling Doctor Lindencroft’s dream.”

“A dream that permits you to have one of those I see,” Christina stared at the ring that almost gravely resembled her fathers. William looked down to the ring-finger taking his thumb to twiddle the gold as he bit his lower lip.

“This ring bears a heavier burden than what you know.”

“What burden? Other than being born a man,” Christina’s eyes narrowed the old feeling of inadequacy coming back to her again.

William gave a soft look to her as his aquamarine pools stared with promise into hers. “I can assure you that a great deal of things have changed, while a great deal has not.”

Ignoring the younger man Christina continued, “Your father said he was of the House of Cain, and it is said that this house creates. Just what do you create exactly?”

“We create a many great deal of things; we are the descendants of you and in turn we are the descendants of your father Samuel Braithwhite himself. You said your father wished to return to paradise, but my father looks to build his own.”

“Another man with a god complex who does not want to live in the hell that he’s created.”

“What is hell to a man? Does it exist within his own mind or body? Within my short years of intensive study, I have found out the body can endure in ways that the mind cannot. It is rather an ironic thing men and god complexes; and now that I look at you and your work with the Mark of Cain, I see that you stood to counter god. It was your spell was it not,” William asked changing the subject.

“It was a perfected improvement on my father’s Invulnerability Spell; and when I found out that my father’s spell could bring back someone through the power of healing, it was when everything clicked,” the witch simply answered.

“May I ask how it clicked?” Christina’s mind shot back to that night along the pier, as guilt sank into her skin along with the array of emotions. She felt shame as the pain in her chest carried the thought of Ruby and her tears. And like a sour taste on her tongue, the witch mourned the sweet innocent boy that had been brutally murdered; Emmett Till’s death had carried his people to freedom, and yet it was her gravest sin as such a freedom was a luxury not even she could give to the one she loved, and yet she had told Ruby that she gave no care to her grief. It had been a mistake Christina wished Hiram’s Time Machine could solve. _Why couldn’t I make you feel free?_ Burying a lump within her throat Christina said nothing; and as the walls closed around her, she steeled herself as she had not wanted to give the moment within her mind away as they descended downstairs.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, and to answer your question magic is not some light switch you flick on; alignment helps you control the chaos and for that you have to feel the energies around you. The night I learned of the Mark of Cain; my father shot a traveling companion of Atticus Freeman. My father had always been decent with Incantation, but he lacked Intention as his Invulnerability Spell had been incomplete even as he casted it on his body. So, when I told him that the Invulnerability Spell could be used to heal, that was when I found out that night.”

“I see. Well certainly you have lived an amazing life; I can honestly say that I am truly proud to be your descendant. My father is waiting for you in his lab, please if you need anything from me and I mean **anything** I am at your disposal,” William added as he broke apart giving a small bow.

Christina finally had heard it, the smooth sincerity within his voice. It had been the Braithwhite trait that seemed so charming to the world; and it had been an allure that turned many on their heads. In a way she had seen herself in him, as he turned to take his leave.

***

Walking into the lab a mix of old and new came to her eyes; stone and steel had marveled the room. Wider than her father’s own lab, the welcome change had been a thought that she was thankful to be spared of as the room was sterile and cold. Christina took in the scent of blood as she observed the two lifeless bodies that laid stiff and stripped on the operating table; at the sight of them it made her numb to the thought of death. She had noticed the pair as they looked peaceful in their slumber, but from the deep cut and rope burns on their necks; the trauma told her only pieces she wished not to put together. She smelled the same scent within them that she had drunk from nearly hours ago, and she wondered how she could smell such a thing. An anger boiled in her, and yet a piece of wonderment and fear collided with her as a flash of Ruby on the table pulled her back. As two suited and white aproned men came to wheel one of the bodies out of her sight to the far corner of the lab; they pressed a series of numbers before opening the door to a chilled-storage. Turning his stool from his work, she noticed the face of Caleb. Like William the older Braithwhite had been dressed in a simple tux, yet he had been without a jacket.

Getting up a wide shit-eating-grin appeared on his face. “I believe you are long overdue for this Ms. Braithwhite.” Tossing a black velvet box her way, Christina’s long awaiting hands caught it with ease.

Opening the box, a polished golden ring had been given to her; noticing the symbol it had been the Order of the Ancient Dawn. A sour look crept on the white-witches face, if she had been younger a part of her would have jumped for joy, but only distain came. She had been past such things, and Ruby entered her mind and the very memory of her bit at her own heels.

“Well this is unexpected. I guess it takes killing your only family, dying, and waiting two-hundred years to get a ring from a fallen and buried Order,” Christina snapped awaiting answers.

“Surely I meant no insult, as I’m sure you did not come to collect old trinkets from a dead Order,” Caleb spoke out.

“And surely I didn’t come to accept a cheap gift,” Christina drew back. A smirk gathered on Caleb’s face as the look of his blue eyes had been something of interest as the flavor of it reminded her of the musician. “You’re right. You are more than some cheap vanity gift that was once held by small-minded-men.” The sickly-silence ate up the room as Caleb continued, “Did you know that there is one loophole to Time Travel my dear?”

“According to your son William, I would say that time is a planned pattern; then again, somehow I’m the piece of the pattern that is out of place,” Christina spoke out playing hard ball.

Going to the small bar he collected two cups filling them with a smooth Brandy, as he passed the cup to her a gentle smile lingered on Caleb’s keen jaw. “Well now I can see where I get my imagination from. It is a shame that my son lacks such a thing; then again tactfulness was never his strong suit. Time and death often share the same hand, and once death has cut you from the fabric of your mortal coil, time essentially means nothing. Even though the Mark of Cain saved us much time and energy when it came to re-constructing your body when we found you; still you died when that Kumiho bonded your life to Atticus Freeman. That death was meant for him as he broke times rhythm, the fool should’ve known that consequences exist for the living who play with time.”

“The smallest inconsequential detail altered my course,” Christina answered.

“Yes, it did.”

“So was I your inconsequential detail when it came to you imprisoning me in that.” The heiress pointed to the hardened cracked shell that hung from a hook like a gutted trophy, and as it resembled a pale ghost the cocoon looked broken and weathered.

“Ah yes. Your body was gravely injured, and the Mark of Cain could not perform its function the way it did with you being crushed under that rubble. So, when we found you, we placed you in something called S.A.C. known as Selective Advanced Construction; it was over seven years ago I completed S.A.C. For fifteen years I’ve studied on the evolution of genes, and for the last seven years me and the few bright minds sworn to the House of Cain; had sought other means to evolve from our mortal-coil.”

“Evolve into what,” Christina’s lips sung out as the words stung on her tongue, she took a slight sip of her drink to mask the burn.

Caleb’s eyes brightened alarming her, and as his grinning glow of fangs lightened his blue sapphires as he unnervingly responded. “You see it was after hearing of your story and knowing of your work within the art of magic; we humble few sought to apply science to magic. Today magic and science coexist together. However it was not always so, because of Atticus cutting all of us from magic we had to start over again, but once we regained what little we could; the House of Adam had been carved by the Bond of Lilith changing our obligations. For years I have studied many beasts of my own creation in this lab, and from our efforts we’ve found the bridge to their blood and the Aryan Genome as a whole.”

“And what does that mean for you? Surely you don’t think I’m as foolish enough to believe that you wanted to see an old family member; why else would you go through all of this trouble. Something’s changed…and I’m sure it has something to do with the Book of Elohim,” Christina accused as she crossed her arms with drink in her hand pointing to him.

“Did you know that when God cursed Cain after he slew his brother, he was sent to wonder the broken world that Adam and Eve created?”

Taking down the last of her drink, the ancestor went over to fix her own as if she owned the ground she walked on. “I think I should know about the fate of Cain seeing as my father gave me enough lectures on my place within the subject. Then again, I should ask what the House of Adam teaches to the masses, it is funny how we are the eighty-eighth house. I wonder what Führer Hitler and my father’s associate SS General Joseph Lindencroft would say about this debacle, but I’m sure your severely outdated ideologies would know their answer,” Christina coolly snapped her eyes knowing what she saw in front of her. A large part of it made her sick to her stomach, as she drank in deep.

Caleb gave a dashing smirk as he bashfully looked down, before looking back up at her. He gave no denial of her claim and he had not melted at her angered gaze as he pressed on, “Ms. Braithwhite. Do you know what Shoggoth’s truly are?”

“I should know what they are as I’ve bred many of them; but since you seem so desperate to impress me then tell me, just what are Shoggoth’s?”

“To simply put it they are the first spawn of Cain, sons and daughters who were misshapen so much so that god sent a great flood to wash the land over. You see there were unwritten parts to the bible that were locked away in the Vatican; it was upon the Sons of Seraphina and their invasion of Earth that they discovered such pages, but that is until we took those pages back. It is said that when god cursed Cain after he slew his brother, no death could come to him prematurely. In such a state of stillness Cain grew angry and enraged at god; that was until he turned to Lilith. Lilith who had been casted from the Garden of Eden prior to Eve’s arrival, had sought her vengeance upon god and she found it in Cain. It was upon their unholy union that Lilith cursed Cain to hunt for the blood of men; and together they sired creatures unlike the world had never seen, as they terrorized men.”

“You must take me for a simpleton, biblical literalism has always founded stories of an unbelievable nature; the spell for the making of Shoggoth’s had been founded in the Language of Adam, not the Language of Cain.”

“I wish I could believe your sentiments really I do, and I meant no disrespect to your intellect Ms. Braithwhite.”

“The Braithwhite line has worked endlessly to master what little we could of the Language of Adam, only Titus knew the words. And yet now two-hundred years into the future your son and you tell me the Language of Cain exists. I’m curious to know how these eighty-eight spells came about and who would be that powerful to add them, or would that have to do with the Bond of Lilith sealing everything away?”

“I see you’ve heard the tale. Yes, the Language of Cain is the written word within the Book of Elohim. Whereas the Book of Names had been within the Language of Adam, as for who finished the Book of Elohim that answer may have to do with other factors.”

“What other factors?”

“You will know in due time,” Caleb smiled out with a pale stare.

“And what of the Book of Names,” Christina asked her mind curious to the book and immortality that alluded her.

“The Book of Names pales in comparison to the Book of Elohim; and while the Book of Names was said to spell one’s body to become more powerful, powerful does not mean infallible. The Book of Elohim is vastly important to the work that we can achieve together Ms. Braithwhite. I am sure you know this, but Shoggoth’s are creatures of the night as they are beasts meant to consume the blood and flesh of men. However, what if I told you that your mark on the world was something more than a blight on man; and what if I told you the creation of Shoggoth’s were the key to gaining something much more.”

“And what more can that possibly be?”

“Immortality.”

“When Lilith had set her aim to challenge god; Cain had sought his own possibilities building grand cities and siring more children with Lilith. Together Lilith and Cain had built a dark paradise made of its own constructional value; that is until the great flood came generations later to cleanse the curses and misdeeds of man. Shoggoth’s were the first of their mind, blood, and seed; but they had several other night children that spilled onto the void if man.”

Her eyes narrowed, “What does that mean?”

Caleb held a handout to the dead body, he looked with a clinical smile as he presented her as if she were an animal. “The Common Negro, it is said upon their creation that they were made to serve between man and beast when Cain and Lilith mated.”

Christina smiled to herself in frustration; and while her ears picked up on the sound of footsteps, she spotted William with coat in hand. The witch stared at Caleb as the blonde man in that moment resembled her own father; in so many ways she saw an anger that reminded her of Ruby, but it was twisted into something more than righteous anger. “You know my father Samuel Braithwhite thought like you did; they spoke of human lives and magic like a simple exchange of currency. And they thought themselves to be Aryan Gods free to give life and take it as they choose to see fit. I’d seen the unforgivable things they’ve done; and do you know what I did to them?”

Christina slowly walked up to the man reaching his height easily. Caleb was silent making her continue, “I slaughtered Every. Single. One. Of. Them.”

Caleb smiled simply as he had been the first to pull back from her wroth. “Despite my personal ideologies, I have a great immense respect for you. You Ms. Braithwhite have gone further than no man has gone before, you achieved your heart’s desire only to have it ripped away from you by vermin that were lesser than you. So, forgive my ideologies and the grace they lack. The mortal man named Atticus Freeman along with his companions took your eternity of firsts; and while the dead cannot compensate you, I took the liberty of doing so myself.”

“And just how did you do that,” Christina shot back sarcastically.

“William.” 

Turning her head, a gun shot rang out hitting her square between the eyes. She felt her body fall as the young Braithwhite loomed over her as he coldly tilted his head in indifference; and as he unleashed serval more rounds into her chest emptying the magazine he walked away. As Caleb looked to the stopwatch that found its way into his hand, within moments Christina gasped for air pulling herself up. On a shaky watered view, she saw as the bullets had forced their shells and fragments out of her skin. There had been no pain, as dried blood only remained where her wounds had been. Coughing in a fit, she held up her hand as two bloody bullets slipped into her awaiting hand.

“When Lilith gave Cain his new form; she gave him a new Garden of Eden full of unimagined potential. A potential that science and I have unlocked as your descendants.”

“W-What did you do to me,” Christina asked as her fear slightly lingered.

With dark-blue velvet box in hand Caleb walked over; and while a part of Christina wanted to shrink away, her pride would not allow it. Kneeling slowly his eyes never leaving hers Caleb spoke as cold as stone, “I gave you your heart’s desire. I gave you Immortality, you my dear are the first of many victories. I made you something that only myths and fears serve.”

“So, you think yourself to be a god like my father,” Christina rasped out as William helped her to her feet.

Caleb rose in turn as his hands drew behind his back. “Your father was no god and nor was he Adam. Samuel Braithwaite was a weakened Abel; he was too devoted and blind to see the false word of his own paradise. I do not think of myself as a god, and I am sorry if you misunderstood my interference. You my dear are more than what your father intended for you, and you are more than some serving girl for those black beasts within an uncooperative time. You are more than everything.”

“So, what? Am I some kind of god to you?”

The cold death of Caleb’s hands had reached for her own hand. Christina felt the cold large band slip around her ring finger perfectly. Crafted in gold it nearly resembled her father’s old ring he wore within the Order of the Ancient Dawn, yet in the face of the gold the symbol of Saturn had been in the center. “Oh Christina. You are beyond god, you are so many things of want, need, and desire. You are Cain, and you shall lead us to a great victory; and you shall place the first stone upon the Grand City of Enoch itself. You share the night with us eternally. You my dear are a vampire.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I am done with this chapter, 28 pages and 14,913 words done. I wanted to play around a lot with the Lovecraftian Creatures like Nyarlathotep and the Ghast. Just as well I wanted to explore parts of other religious context and Neo-Nazism as well. I worked hard on this chapter, so I gotta get back to my other chapter for my other story Black Butterflies and Devils Blue Eyes. Thank you everyone for the support, and I am sorry it took me so long. If you can show your love, support, and reviews would give me so much life thanks.


	3. Winthrop’s Observatory Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ji-Ah and Ruby Meet an interesting acquaintance; Christina comes to terms about her situation in the Future. I suck at Summary's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Note: Happy New Year and Black History Month everyone I know I’m late, but I was writing this. Thank you everyone for the comments last chapter. I want to give a special thanks to my LesbiHonest Discord and the Christina and Ruby Community; your comments are important and special to my work. I know last chapter was a lot and I know I am a bit of a long-winded writer in a sense, but I do want to give a good quality-based story and I want to push myself when it comes to the Science-Fiction Genre. I love ways that I can include Eldritch Horror, The Bible, Poetry, History and Head-Cannon into the mix; because let’s face it Misha Green Fucked up. Nevertheless, I want to thank the people that fueled my crazy ass Head-Cannons and put up with my crazy ass theories.
> 
> Like I said before in NO WAY am I supporting Neo-Nazism or Nazism, Sexism, Racism, Colorism, Non-Consensual-Arranged-Marriages and Fatphobic imagery on this story. As a Black Woman myself I can only go by the History I know and what our people know, and as a Black Woman I do not mean any hostilities to the Asian Culture or Jewish Community as I understand that your integration into America had been rough as well. And although I do know of Asian support within the 1960’s during the Black Panther Party Era, for this story we are still within the midst of the Korean War within 1955, and I do want to show that even though Black Folks can’t be Racist, we can be Prejudice to other people of color as well. Also, to True White Allies that understand how your privilege can be harmful to us Black People there will be a lot of offensive language as well; I do not harbor any prejudices against white people. I think like all people we just can’t stand Karen’s and Chads. So, to my White Audiences don’t take offense to the wording I’m using; now if you do as a White Person, then you might need a harder look in the mirror. 
> 
> I have done my historical references to this chapter, and I will continue to do so for future chapters because I am a Black History Nerd. I hope people can enjoy this story and learn from the past and future; and I hope ya’ll can cry with me as I simp over these crazy chaotic characters that are Ruby and Christina. So, let us get on with the story, I just hope I didn’t screw up too much editing.

_**Saturn: 504** _

_**Coordinates:**_ ( _ **6688.737.6668) (3361.507.1388)**_

_**Location: The City of Lucion** _

_**Year: 2155** _

The city lights gave notice to blue-eyes as color bounced from the polished-stretch-limo. Christina Braithwhite had saw the wonder of the world like a child staring at the first fall of snow. The city had been bustling with life ready to break at the seams; and as her eyes stayed casually glued to the window, she held down her excitement. Sipping her drink slowly, her eyes wondered at the string of moving lights as strange cars floated inches above the pavemented roads. And as the limo came to a red-light, she saw life in motion as patrons stopped outside to venders selling food. Her eyes held a curiosity as she had noticed that the customers held their wrists out as strange lights flashed on their skin before giving them their product. The way they dressed had been different from her own, yet she assumed it was the formality of their dinner arrangements that limited her. As women and men wore patterns and hair designs that she could not explain; the limo pushed forward leaving the skyline to show neon-colored lights. Like the screening of a movie, large characters and figures paraded in a series of repeated oddities that reminded her of her own television back in 1955. The strange colorful characters had been a life all too real for the white witch to know of its authenticity; and even as they were plastered in motion on the tall line of skyscrapers, such inventiveness reminded her of the past. There was a bleeding-effect in Christina Braithwhite’s brain; and as she took in every single advertisement, all of it had been foreign to her. Different from New York or Chicago; this new world she lingered in felt cluttered and plastic as the air threatened to straddle and strangle her lungs with cold unknowing.

Accidentally clicking a button on the armrest, Christina’s insides slightly jumped as a small window opened above the hood. From the open space she observed the grand sky as it mimicked twilights setting sun; and even as the last rays lingered, her eyes captured a small glimmer of clusters. They all took the shape of honeycomb-shaped-panels that reflected and patterned itself amongst the dusk-lit-stars; there had been thousands of them if not millions, yet the sky had been too high to tell even as her eyes adjusted. The Braithwhite born woman felt a strange energy within the peaking of darkness, and as the last moments of sunset mimicked the smooth steady hand of a canvas; the white-witch missed the organic feel of it. The hues of light and color had been another world onto itself, and as it ensnared its jaws around the witch her curiosity gorged itself on her wonderment; and in a way despite her discomfort, it had been a welcomed change of pace. On the over light Christina fixed her gaze on the high-rises that surfed-on above them, and while they sat like tall giant kings looming over their subjects; she noticed the buildings had been of cold chrome, steel, and glass. There had been an odd familiarity about the titanic towers, yet their looming shape and formidable size made her appreciate its queerness. The odd and strange never bothered Christina Braithwhite; yet the unexplained did.

“How are you liking everything so far?” The smooth voice of William broke her curious silence as he sat across from her; with her eyes narrowed and now in a newly-worn-blue-number, a part of her wanted him to get the hint. While the atmosphere around them had been much different than the raging red storm that she had been born into just days prior; the blonde began to wonder where the days slipped to. Still to her annoyance Christina answered the young man in front of her, “If you think a car ride is going to make up for you shooting me not once, but twelve times; that isn’t going to be an acceptable solution.”

Leaning forward his elbows set themselves on the tops of his knees, guilt sat on Williams pale narrow face as he scrubbed his chin with an open hand. Ideally William Braithwhite had not been the passenger she wanted, but anything had been better than Caleb. While the House of Cain Lodge Leader had been nowhere in sight since leaving Ardham; her exasperation had not been nearly as palpable. “Look. I know shooting you happened…abruptly; but my father he just wanted you to see the gift you have.”

“Making me into a Shoggoth isn’t what I would exactly call a gift,” Christina lashed out coldly before taking a sip of her drink. The Braithwhite had been drinking for nearly an hour as each sip tasted like the first; and while Christina had been keen to observe the new happenings of her own body, she had come to the assessment that she could no longer be intoxicated. The two-hundred-year-old witch had so many questions that rested in the lingering of her soul, yet she had no heart to ask them; that much her pride would not allow when it came to the young man in front of her.

“You’re not a monster, I can tell you that much. The gift my father gave to you was what you wanted all along, you will never grow old, feel pain, and you will never be sick. You are the completion to his greatest work; we cannot change our nature. This life he gave to us is permanent.”

“Permanent yes, but what you don’t know William is there are consequences to everything. The thought of turning into the same creatures that I bred for years,” Christina spoke out.

“There is no foul play, only an opportunity.”

Leaning forward with drink in hand the kin-killer bit back her urge to scream, “You say that, but don’t you know William? Any gift can be taken away, my immortality had been my ascension from death, sickness, and pain.” Tilting back the plush leather seats had comforted her as she sarcastically continued looking away from William’s busy gaze, “You should have left me under that rock; at least the residents would’ve brought me a television to watch while I was stuck there. And I’m sure it would’ve beat becoming one of my own fucking creations.”

“I can assure you, that you will not become something so lowly; for years, my father studied the isolation of Shoggoth genes. After endless years of research and testing when he found the solution, he took their greater instincts and correlated it with the human genome.”

“So, that’s it? I’m just something out of a Bram Stroker Novella?”

“I can assure you that what you know from Shoggoth’s and Vampires does not apply to us. We won’t fizzle into ash when we look at the sun, crosses have no bearing on us, and nor does the good-old-fashion steak to the heart kill us. You can operate as if you have before; it's just that you come with advantages. Thanks to my father he has heightened your human limitations, and in a way, certain humanistic barriers are no longer a challenge for you. Joseph Lindencroft in 1936 had been a heavy Eugenics Supporter; yet his true hand had been in the art of magic and the occult.”

“Well, he is a Nazi after all; and a failed one at that,” Christina pushed out.

“Nonetheless, Joseph had been too invested in other matters to dive more into his research. However, he believed Aryan’s could evolve past their physical potential. From Joseph, to Hemric, and all the way to Eric none of them could crack the real key to our genetic data and nor could they mold it to their liking. Yet out of everyone my father has edged closer to his goal, and it is thanks to their previous research and theory. He crafted me and then you, as you are the perfect Aryan Specimen.”

“There is no such thing as perfect.”

“Lying to yourself is unbecoming Christina, I know you can sense it. I know you know the night and all it’s life around you; and I know you can feel it, the senses and smells around you, you can hear every single human heartbeat around you, and you can smell the core of this rotten city.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Christina denied as her mind still had been in a state of resistance rather than disbelief. Pulling back the young man knocked on the blackened glass as the window rolled down. “Stop. We’ll walk from here.”

“Yes sir.”

The bright night lights came out to bare its fangs as William had been the first one out. The air had been crisp and fresh on Christina’s face as the door had opened; and yet her body had not felt the chill that others around her had. William stretched out a waiting hand slowly, the thought of him made her look forward ignoring him; and yet on the inside excitement bounced in her like something caged and wild as she wanted to explore the city.

From her peripherals she spotted the pleading face of the younger man, as he sagged his shoulders dejected, “Look I’m sorry for shooting you.”

More silence came as he rolled his eyes continuing his apology, “Look I’m sorry for shooting you twelve times. It won’t happen again…please…can you step out of the car? I want to show you something.” There had been more silence as Christina had looked forward making the young Braithwhite beg again, “Please? Can you do this for your one and only great, great, great, great, great, great, grea-”

“Ok fine,” Christina snapped out. Stepping into the Saturn night she observed as William gave a tap to the hood; his smirk reminding her of Ruby as even the cross breeding of night hungry beasts couldn’t erase the innocence of the musician that sat within her descendant. Christina thought to the cherry-lipstick-colored-smile; it had been a wicked yet daring thing, and a part of her lingered for it. Taking her clutch in her hand and crossing her arms the wind made her toss her hair out the way. Blue oceans of eyes took in more as everything buzzed within her senses. The night sang with life in her; she craned herself to look around as her ears and eyes caught sound and sight, she could smell the odors and fragrances of those around her. The hairs on her neck stood as she heard the arguing couple blocks away from her, and the shopkeeper’s rapid heartbeat across the street. Her mouth nearly and involuntarily watered at the invitation of what was in their veins. The taste of blood had been inconsequential when she slit Atticus wrists and took his blood into her own the Night of the Equinox; there was only the result. And while the taste of blood had meant nothing to her; she could remember the salty copper taste as she even had a mouth full of William Davenports fleshly peeled remains on more than one occasion. It had been an after effect once her Metamorphosis Spell had worn off, and while the taste of blood had been no issue for her, she had grown accustomed and addicted to a freedom of firsts. Yet now this part of her had been foreign in feeling, yet she knew it all too well. This feeling was urgent…alarming and exotically euphoric.

“C-Can you hear that,” she pointed out as she heard an arguing couple nearly ten blocks away from her.

“You mean the couple five-blocks away, yes I can hear them,” William falsely corrected.

Slightly annoyed while being explicitly curious Christina asked, “No, it was ten blocks is this normal? How do I turn it off?”

“It’s your senses, they are still adjusting; it usually takes about forty-eight hours. There are some factors about you that might change over the course of the next few days, but my father insisted on taking you out tonight. Just try to concentrate and close your eyes.”

A slight ring grew in the blonde woman’s ears as she pushed back against the younger man’s advice, “Ok so you have me out here, and now you want me to close my eyes?”

“Do you want to learn how to control this or not? Because I had to learn the hard way, you have to trust me we have a lot more in common than you think.”

“I doubt that. You know, just because your father gave me this ring it still doesn’t change anything, the both of you still have not told me what you want. You asked me once what hell means to a man, well not knowing can be hell to a woman as well,” Christina tossed out.

She could tell the dejected sigh that sat within his shoulders as William explained, “The war between the Sons of Seraphina and Saturn are a means that will come to an end. My father wants to be the solution to that end. The Houses of Adam are all useless old souls who will not bring men with grander intentions to their rightful place in this world. My father seeks to make his own place away from it all. The thing is…everyone wants something more; it’s just up to you to decide what you want to give.”

“And just what do **you** want,” Christina asked with a snap as the sounds grated on her eardrums.

“I don’t think you really want to know what I want do you,” William slipped out tightly.

“If you can’t tell me then we have nothing more to discuss,” Christina commanded out, turning to walk away from him, the sounds around her grew louder.

“Wait! Christina wait….please!”

In a flash he was in front of her pulling her into the darkness of an alley, the moment felt unintended as anger and confusion surged within her. “What was that? How did you move that fast?” Just before her mind could process the speed suddenly, the vast excitement of noise loomed over her like a cloud; and as the sounds became populated as more vehicles in motion passed, her senses became more prominent to the pitching screams and sound of the city. The ring in her ears grew faster and higher in pitch, as her head felt as if an egg had been cracked within her skull.

“Why is everything so loud!” The sound of an on-coming rail lingered just two blocks down as the pitch of everyone and everything threatened to cut into her skull. In a moment, the blonde nearly sunk to her knees yet Williams awaiting presence caught her; and as the pain within her eardrums beat on like a war march heading to battle, her skin felt the stark clammy chill that she didn’t before. Staring up to the flashing lights, a bumping pain soared behind her eyeballs bringing tears to gather in her eyes. In one painful moment, Christina felt small and crushed again under that same rock that night at Ardham back in 1955; the feeling of death had been prominent within her chest. Unlike last time her mind did not call to any spell as she could only think of the musician. _Ruby! Where are you?_

“Shh…it’s going to be all right.”

“I-I can’t stop it.” A pair of matching hands covered her own as a lean chest covered her eyes to the blinding lights. And while the piercing sounds barely managed to muffle itself out, the warmth of the younger man settled into a soothing hum as he spoke quietly, “Shh…it’s going to be all right you’re going to get through this. I’m here. Just close your eyes as tight as you can; that’s right, just listen to the sound of my voice.” Shaking slightly in his hold suddenly Christina felt cold, she slowly closed her eyes listening to his baritone voice, “Think of something pleasant in your mind; think of her.”

“R-Ruby.” Picturing Ruby in her mind the blonde missed the scent of her, and the last and only taste of her lips. Christina longed for the hot Summer days and nights she would spend with the musician; and the gentleness she would practice in her presence whenever those full lips would hum a tune. She missed the smell of her cooking and the warmth of her when she would crawl into bed after a late long night. Christina longed to see the suns shining kisses that traveled up soft brown skin, and she missed memorizing each curve and dimple of Ruby under her negligée. It was her hunger that made her want for the Southside woman, and it had made that most tangible part of her tremble.

“Ruby.”

“Yes. Think of every moment of peace between you two, think of how she made you feel.” The screams of sound stopped; and while the sawing in her head came to a halt slowly, she removed her head from his chest. As the younger Braithwhite moved his hands from hers, his voice never lost its gentle sound as she lowered her hands from her ears.

“That’s it. Just hold her in your mind.” Feeling embarrassed by her own weakness, Christina’s eyes didn’t meet the young blondes, as she straightened herself in his presence.

Mumbling out Christina looked away, “Thank you…for that.”

“No problem. Here.” Awkwardly she watched as the younger man turned his back kneeling in front of her; thanking her lucky stars that tears never fell from her eyes, she looked on ridiculously at the younger man.

“W-What are you doing?”

“I’m offering you a piggyback ride. What? Never had one,” William looked back at the blonde witch.

“No, its…my first time.”

“It’s simple just wrap your arms around my neck and I’ll do the rest. Suddenly she felt foolish, and while she attempted to wrap her arms around him, Christina awkwardly looked for an angle. A part of her wanted to choke the life from him and run into the randomized world before her; yet the better part of her advised against it, and even as she wanted to explore this queer exotic planet, she had no plan and Christina Braithwhite **always** had a plan. Grabbing his neck, William hoisted her up with ease as he tightened his hold on her, “You’re going to want to hold on. If you fall, I’ll get blamed.”

“Where are we going, I thought your father was expecting us.”

“I’m going to give you a tour of Lucion. Like New York down on Earth this city never sleeps.”

“Lucion? What does that me-” Taking off the younger man leaped in the air bouncing from wall to wall with ease, clutching tight to the blonde-haired man air swiftly caught in Christina’s lungs. Like a pale flash of the moon the man had been faster than anything she’d ever drove within her short life; and as he skillfully traveled from roof to roof with a track-stars ease, she saw the skyline of the grand glimmering city. Within the night she observed as the buildings windowed lights looked like distant bright stars, and while the moments and bodies of water existed into other territories; Christina wondered how such magic within a place existed. The thought of is stripped the two-hundred-year-old Braithwhite bare as the wind wiped her tears with perplexity. And while the flow of air slowed around her, William finally stopped letting himself and her down. Dusting herself off as the younger man laughed carelessly, she had saw the boy in him as she gave a coy smile.

“That was not funny,” Christina responded coolly.

Through a fit of giggles William brushed the tears from his eyes as he responded, “No but the look on your face was too priceless. I haven’t laughed like this in a while.” Going to the edge of the railing he sat down casually as if he were sitting on a park bench, loosening his bow tie the fresh air hit the night. Crossing her arms, she casually walked over peeking over the edge he dangled upon as the building had been fifty-stories high.

“Come. Sit with me.”

“I'll pass,” Christina coldly answered putting back up her steeled mask.

“What? It’s not like I’m going to push you, and it’s not like your gonna die even if I did.”

“That’s a comforting assessment. Still, I don’t like the prospect of being around you during unsupervised moments.”

“Even if you fell from this height, you would be able to heal yourself with no problem; in all actuality your instincts would avoid the fall all together. I take it you’re not comfortable in your own body,” William stated in a factual tone that had been like her own.

“When you spend a whole lifetime coming from a generation of hate, and when you come from a father who curses you for not being born into the son he wanted; it leaves for a skewed introspect of one’s body when it comes to the prospect of adulthood. It is thanks to your father I don’t know what skin or body I should be comfortable with; then again, I never had time to do that myself. No…that right was casually ripped away long before your father. It’s ironic.”

“What is?”

“It’s ironic to be robbed by the very people I tried to help,” Christina answered out as she leaned over to rest her arms on the small railing. The image of a painted sky had given life to the stars; and as hues of blue and orange yellows melted in the skyline, night had truly begun. A jolt of energy sat under Christina’s skin and from it a new feeling emerged bold and bright; looking at the ring that had been slipped on to her hand, she took it off as she let the gold linger between the tips of her fingers.

“You still can’t believe it can you?”

The voice of the young man broke through the silence, and for some strange moment the witch felt a small comfort in talking to the young Braithwhite; though more annoyance with him persisted rather than comfort, as it reminded her of Ruby. Looking up to the sky water gathered in the corners of her eyes, and as she nodded answering his previous question. A sigh came to Williams mouth before her eyes fixed itself to the glistening city of lights and life before commenting again, “It’s beautiful isn’t it?”

“I can say this is more accommodating than Massachusetts.” Christina stared at the city line as everything shimmered, the smell of the air had been clean and yet she wondered to her possibilities.

“I would be inclined to share your distain with you but seeing as I’ve never been to Earth, I can’t share your sentiments. Still, what I want to know is how did you know all that about Lindencroft?”

“You know Atticus Freeman asked me a remarkably similar question two-hundred years ago. It’s funny, he thought that all of us were members of the Ku Klux Klan,” Christina smiled fondly somehow missing the dark-skinned man’s annoying yet simple presence.

“I’ve heard of the Klan within my research. A lost cause for lost souls so I’m told; and yet I’m curious to know what you told Atticus,” William as he searched the inner-lining of his coat-pocket pulling out a silver flask.

“I told him that my father would never associate with the Klan. They were too poor.” A chuckle came from William’s throat as she continued looking off into the distance, “In a way I told him the truth, but not all of it. Sure, the Klan were too poor for the Braithwhite name, but it turns out in 1945 the remaining and fleeing Nazi’s weren’t. Even though I may have not been allowed into the Order of the Ancient Dawn, there were somethings I wasn’t privy to and a lot of it served as an example to remind me of my place as a woman.”

“So, what did you know,” William asked sipping his drink.

“The horrors inflicted on others for my father and his associates had been a thing rooted in ruthlessness by Titus Braithwhite, but it had been perfected when my father met SS General Joseph Lindencroft in 1943.”

“How did they meet?”

“A common correspondence linked them together. When the war was lost in ‘45 my father helped Lindencroft escape by smuggling him into America. You see the Nazi’s were obsessed with Immortality just like the Order, for centuries no one could crack the spell until I did. It is in my experience that men who wield power are often unorganized, most of them are too undisciplined to harness a spells true potential. So, they find other methods to slate their appetite; from war, money, sex, to subjugation, men make every excuse to cover for their failures. Even after Lindencroft told my father to kill my mother to make his Invincibility Spell work; that Kraut still came around promising my father a new world.”

“Did he make good on his promise?”

“Joseph Lindencroft promised a lot to the Order. As for my father, Joseph promised him a paradise fit for Adam himself. My father…has taken everyone that has ever meant anything to me. All the original founding members of the Order from Holloway to Rogers fell for Lindencroft’s interpretation of immortality, and my father got the worst of it. Yet now that I look at this city that all of you made; it makes me sick to my stomach, because in some small way that man and my father succeeded,” Christina slipped out with an angry-dejected tone in her voice.

“They looked to the past, rather than the future,” William commented. “This may sound absolutely foolish to you; but I thought killing my father for my mother and the others would be enough, but it is not.”

Christina inwardly thought to the night Ruby laid within that cold dark basement; it had been moments after she had caught her trying to steal the potion to hijack her spell. She thought to that painful night within the bathroom and the blood that lingered within the sink. And while Christina’s long slender fingers remembered the weight of the loaded gun that sat by her side; the wind shuttered through her as it felt like that night all over again at the lake. It was that cold lonely feeling, that shameful, scared scarring that seemed to seep into the rotten core of her soul. That night had been the longest of her entire life; and while despairs dread clawed at her, Christina wanted to end it all as she took off the Mark of Cain as the cold foreign feeling of a gun sat at her temple. A gray hanging shame sat in her chest and as the white witch had been too much of a coward to pull the trigger, reality set in. She knew the plan to gather intel on Atticus had fell to pieces as soon as she saw Ruby that night at Sammy’s. And yet Christina had died long before that under her father’s rule; and yet she couldn’t classify it as dying. She knew all of it had been pain, the sheer insanity of it unmaking her and stripping her to the core. That night she felt it all; and as it had been as Ruby wanted, all the sensations of pain, shame, and guilt ran through her like a freight train.

Christina felt violated with each strike that sat upon her body, it had been a dreadful moment that not even the safety of her whiteness provided. And as the white witch felt every punch and bullet by her two attackers, the grim grievances that visited Christina Braithwhite’s mind and body lured her into the mind-numbing pain of loneliness. The shame had come easily, and she had been scared, those moments were instant; yet loneliness, had been a slow thing to rot away in her as she walked back home into the brisk night. And as she returned to Hyde Park a sodden and broken mess; she knew Ruby would never know the depths of her as she took off to the Southside without a moment’s notice. And while she had been the disaster that Ruby wanted, from the moment she emerged from the blacken waters of death; there had only been one feeling amongst a forest of emotions, and the thought of Ruby in pain by her words sat on her chest like a group of stones. The turmoil of terror crafted her, and as Christina hysterically laughed that night she emerged up on the cold wood of the dock; her mind had been clear and ready even as her tears fell within her laughter. Yet it had all ended abruptly when Leti came in to take the one person that stood outside her pride, pain, and safety. And now all she had to show for it had been loneliness, within an unknown world full of firsts.

Setting the cold flask to her cheek, the shock of it turned the white witch from her anger and loss. “Your right you know. We men spend time distancing ourselves from our failures. This place all of it…is a symptom to a problem we whites fought to avoid; this war between the Sons of Saturn and Seraphina, it’s an age-old war between both parties and their retelling of history. People like my father will never learn; I may not be the grandson you wanted, but I can assure you that you and I are more alike than you know.”

“And just how the fuck are we alike? You are not a woman and we cannot possibly relate on any transit of life.”

“And how would you know that I’m not right,” William challenged slightly. “The reason why I know is because I have spent enough time as a man to know that the only thing that men care about is the lies you tell yourselves,” Christina snapped out.

“Your right. We are fools born of the foolish, but the invitation that I am giving you is far more different than my fathers. My father wishes to use you for his own means, but I can invite you to something you’ve lost.”

A dry scoff tumbled from Christina’s lips as she took the flask, as her lips hovered over the drink she sarcastically spat out, “And what invitation could you possibly give me, you and your father have already made me Immortal…again…may I add.”

“I can give you Magic.” Bluish-green eyes widened at the word, and as her now noted slow beating heart rose in force, skepticism came to her.

“What makes you think that you can give me something that you have no power over. Didn’t the Book of Elohim assign everyone with their task? If you think luring me in with false promises is going to keep me around, then you clearly have the wrong person,” Christina spoke out letting the Rum sit with a burn in the back of her throat.

“I would never insult you in such a manner, but I know personally that Magic is something I can give you in all of its integrity,” William stated his cool eyes stern and serious.

“How would you know just what I want,” Christina asked her voice sarcastic and brooding.

“I know because I see it in your eyes; like you, I’ve seen the horrible things my father and the other members of the House of Cain have done. And I know magic and anger is what guided you, and I know it was disillusionment that unmade you into something more. You knew that fate never dissuaded your existence, and you seized your moment.”

“Disillusionment is what got me killed in the first place; then again, there had been a number of things that I didn’t calculate within my plan.”

“And what was that?”

“Sympathy. Feeling sympathy for someone who could care less about me is what led to my downfall. All of them, I saw them as human; I shouldn’t have but I did.”

“Are you talking about Atticus Freeman and Letitia Lewis,” William asked curiously.

Not wanting to answer his question the blonde-white-woman pushed on, “May I suggest that next time if you want to kill your father, you don’t tell the Trojan Horse the plan.” A cool relaxing look rested on William’s handsome features; there had been no shock enlisted on his face, and yet it confirmed what the witch had already sensed between the father and son.

“I wasn’t planning on using you within such a manner,” the young wizard responded.

“Oh. Do tell,” Christina sassily snapped back.

“You seem like a reasonable woman; someone I can strike a deal with. I know that the Book of Elohim has its restrictions, but what if I told you there was a loophole to the spell that Atticus Freeman and Letitia Lewis placed on you two-hundred years ago. And what if I told you that I could get you back to Ruby along with your magic?”

“And how could you possibly do that? Just as well what would make you even think I would want to see her?”

“The concept of time travel is…almost a normal occurrence here, but only it is used within the highest of circumstances. You were issued under Order 88, as it had been a project that was tasked to us and others of the Sons of Saturn. The First Five Houses of Adam are in control of such matters. Overall time travel is used to better our station on this planet, but time travel is not known to the public here and it’s not accessible to them either. Like Hiram spoke of, the process scientifically for time travel has its instabilities if not calculated right, and there is another matter as well.”

“Are you sure it’s not one of your countless possibilities at work,” Christina teased with venom.

“No that is only written into the fabric once time travel has been achieved. In order for time travel to be consistent to the time you want to visit; there must be a link on the other side of time. Usually, these magical doors to each time frame are coordinated with a set of Mathematical Equations.”

“The doors Hiram spoke about are Magical Doors not Mathematical,” the witch added.

“But math is magic in a sense. Why else does society hold such talented men and women to such a stature? It is the same way you came about some of your spells, at least that is what I’ve found from your notes.”

“And just where are my notes exactly?”

“Hiram’s Time Machine is a link for other points of time both past and present; we just don’t know how far Hiram could’ve traveled or if he ever did. All we know is he guarded those time points or doors with Mathematical Equations which are known as Coordinates, and those formulas translate to Magical Equations as well,” William added clearly ignoring her question.

“No wonder why I couldn’t find anything from Horatio’s Stolen Pages,” Christina spoke out as her eyes shifted, thinking to the pages of numbers she saw.

“Maybe you could’ve as time travel is based on a series of coordinated and coded numbers; all it takes is a skilled-eye that can apply the formulas numerical and alphabetical principal to magic. As for the physical properties of Time Travel so long as there is a beacon of sorts, we can navigate the flow in which we arrive; when it came to Hiram’s Time Machine and you fixing it, my numbers were able to capture Hiram’s Signal pointing us closer. Yet I have a feeling you already knew all of this,” William guessed snidely.

“And how did you come to that conclusion?”

“Your demeanor. You’ve been somewhere in time, but the question is where. Why else would you fix Hiram’s Time Machine?”

“Forgive me if I’m not jumping for joy at the progress of mans demise. Also, I wanted to get the Book of Names for myself, but my cousin and his party beat me too it.”

Staring at her the young man dropped his interrogation before starting again, “Time is only a series of codes and equations never meant to change. It was upon Hiram’s design of his own time machine; that we were able to recreate a better model over the span of two centuries. You see that tower in the distance.”

Christina’s eyes looked clearly as if they were an eagle’s eyes hunting pray. Never had she seen in such a vision; not when the world had been distorted and loud just moments ago. The feeling of it excited her cells even more. While she looked to the tower as it sat like a large white-needle pointing to the sky, it had been illuminated with high-beam-lights; and the giant seemed like a sword that reached higher than all the buildings around it. The sight alone made Christina want to question what she saw.

“They are called Valkyries, since Saturn alone is nine times the size of Earth there are over eight-million of these towers around the planet; they are in every city and continent from the City of Lucion here in Neo America, to the continents of New Anglia, Saxson, Great Dracia, Britannia, New Germania, Neo Austria, and Neo Prussia. The First Five Houses of Adam are the ones that oversee the affairs of everything on Saturn; after that, there are the Great Eight Houses that are hand-picked by the Five Houses of Adam that are appointed between the eight continents. Naturally, its houses six through fourteen that oversee stately and governmental affairs amongst the continents; after that puppet politicians are elected by the common people as it keeps down the chaos within the masses, but really the thing is an elegant system of oligarchy.”

“You told me that the Freemans exposed magic on Earth once.”

“The masses know about magic, but none of them have the talent or bloodline to use it, as the Bond of Lilith assured any mishaps.”

“So the House of Adam and the Great Eight Houses have gathered to make their own Axis-Powers, what could be anymore vexing than that,” Christina drummed on.

“Well considering that Saturn itself is a large planet and it can fit over seven-hundred Earth’s within its mass alone; along with the atmosphere of the planet being poisonous, such political agendas are needed. It would take a lot of manpower to make life sustainable on this planet today; but still with the work and the world’s best Engineers and Astro-Physicists they were able to find stability here, and from that cities and continents gathered together to connect the Valkyries once life settled.”

“Here I thought this was some kind of prison or illusion.”

“No, it’s science at its full potential. Well, that and a bit of magic. You see Eric Lindencroft had figured out a way to use his magic to amplify life on this planet; with his own variation of your father’s Invincibility Spell of course.”

“So, these Valkyries amplify the spell he casted,” Christina asked with a low-budget amazement. “Yes, that along with Bio and Genetic Engineering, we as people were able to create life here. Everything you see in this city from the trees to the soil below had been conditioned by Science and sustained by Magic. Without the Valkyries the gases of Saturn alone would kill us. It is amazing that this great experiment that our ancestors sought has flourished.”

“Well, someone should pull the plug on this sad little experiment, all of it; and I don’t want to see Ruby, so I would suggest you start making new plans on your own to kill Caleb,” Christina answered out taking another sip.

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“My mother she was Alyssa Lindencroft. She was kind…and she hated what her family had become. She was married off to my father because she harbored captive men and women who were Sons of Seraphina. She… saw them as people not monsters or enemies. It’s the one crime I’m sure you know you can lose everything for.”

“And what’s that?”

“Seeing people of color as human,” William simply stated. There was no sorrow in his voice only longing and a cold fire that blazed as he continued, “Needless to say, when my grandfather on my mother’s side found out about what she had done; he stripped her of her Invulnerability. Needless to say even though he punished her for her crime, the other members of the House of Adam saw it as a betrayal and threatened to demote the Lindencroft line. So rather than have it be a scandal, my father offered to marry my mother in exchange for the Invulnerability Spell on him.”

“I thought you said one spell one house.”

“To give to thy bond to thy neighbor, shall bare no soiled fruit, but ones blood shall be weighed by stone if they cast others upon themselves.”

“Did you get that from the Book of Elohim?”

“My father didn’t tell you everything, while it is true that we cannot see other spells in the book. There is one part that we can read, and it’s the Ten Sins, like the Ten Commandments no one has been able to know the exact laws in which they are governed. A lot of what we know about the Ten Sins have been noted as a case by case basis. However, I guess the trading of my mother and her marriage to my father had been one of those cases. All I know is it was the one thing my grandfather thought was a good trade; for him it was better to hide the family shame. After their wedding my mother became property to my father. Like I said, a lot has changed in the last two centuries and some things have not,” William commented hitting a soft spot in the witch.

“I wouldn’t dare ask what happened to her and yet I can only guess.”

“The same thing happened to her like your mother. After she had me my father used her for his first clinical trials on S.A.C. Project. She was one of the first of my father’s subjects. She didn’t know any magic so… she didn’t survive.”

“So, all of this is about her?”

“That depends. Do you intend on telling me the truth, about Ruby?” A long silence came from Christina an anger that had been cold and howling came to her, as the first thing trailed within her mind. From the fog of her pain the witch spoke out her voice cold, as her hand squeezed on the metal bar denting it with ease.

“You want to know the truth. The truth is…I hate her. I hate Ruby for betraying me, I hate her for making me feel and bend to her every desire, and I hate that she could not see her own greatness. Yet I could take that all and more, but most of all I hate myself for thinking that getting her pregnant would make her stay with me. But you know, even in my hatred I understand her so clearly now,” Christina eased out as the saltwater that wobbled in her eyes fell.

“So I was right. Still I thought you would have a bit more honor to tell me the truth,” William pushed earning a sleek eye-roll from Christina.

“What? Is it so hard to believe that I lied to you? I knew what I was doing last time Ruby and I were together; and to be honest it’s not that hard for women to track each other when it comes to ovulation. All I needed was time along with the fertility potion I made for myself. Yet I knew she would never feel comfortable with me not in my own body. But Ruby…she only wanted William or a shadow of him, and for a moment I wanted my words as a woman to mean something; and I wanted my actions to mean more as well, because I knew it was the only way I could provide her with the protection and happiness she needed. And I knew if she had her own family and her own joy… Leti would mean nothing to her. I wanted to bring down the stars themselves for her, I wanted her to feel free to be the woman I know she worked damn hard to be, but I couldn’t even do that. Personally, I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.”

A stiff silence ate at the air, and while the sound of sirens blazed in the far distance Christina’s chest felt clear; but the guilt hung on her mind. Breaking the ice Christina took a sip of the flask letting the burn settle within her before commenting, “So. I guess now is the time you tell all of this to your father.”

“I have…a daughter. When you asked me if this was for my mother yes, it is, but its more than that. The reason why I want my father dead is for my daughter Clarissa, she is talented and so…so sweet. And if my father were to find her, he would kill her.” She heard the desperation within his voice as the tall young man sounded weak as his barriers fell, it had been a caring she wanted when it came to her own father. Yet Samuel Braithwhite had been dead and for two-hundred years now, and as it left only Christina to put the pieces together upon the story William told, a part of her didn’t care about the broken man in front of her…well almost.

“You said Caleb would kill her.”

“He would kill my daughter because she’s the very half of something he despises,” the young wizard spat out.

“I see.”

“I told you, that me and you were alike in more ways than one. Look I know what you’re thinking, my father was a monster so that makes me a reflection of his image. However, I’m not the monster you think me to be, I fell in love with the mother of my child and Clarissa was born. I don’t regret any moment of it, and I will do what I can for the both of them.”

“Well since you don’t regret anything then you should prepare for some setbacks; when I planned on killing my father it took planning and time. You have to account for every possibility and failure and you have to know that one small detail can alter your course.”

“Then what about you? What are you going to do while you are here, I mean since you don’t want to go back to your own time,” William asked, as his eyes still shone with a frustrating interest.

“I’m going to learn all that I can of this time while I’m here. Thanks for your offer, but I will find my own way to get my magic back,” Christina answered her lips spilling moments of a half-truth.

William’s pursed lips opened as his voice hung thick on the blowing wind that entered in, “My father isn’t going to allow that.”

Pulling her body back, her glare observed the younger man as she gestured to make her point, “And who is your father to tell me what I can and cannot do?”

“He’s the man that knows our weaknesses,” William suggested hotly.

“And just what are our weaknesses, I thought you said I we were Immortal,” the white-witch snapped.

“Yes, we both are but we aren’t invincible emotionally. My father may look kind-hearted-fool, but he’s no enemy to make. I know my father, and like you he wants to cover all his bases. After we retrieved you from your time he wanted to go back and kill Ruby, but I convinced him not to. For Caleb Braithwhite it would be nothing for him to send others from the House of Cain to kill Ruby, and he wouldn’t stop there he would kill your child in the process.”

“Doesn’t he know, if he kills her then he kills himself.”

“Like I said before he is dead just like us and other members from the House of Cain. When my father died and came back as he is now, he assured time that he was no longer a thread to be plucked. You don’t understand the situation, I’m telling you there is nothing stopping him from killing Ruby. My father has no time for good charity; if you help him interpret the Book of Elohim the more his design will take form, and it will doom us in all of its finality,” William warned.

“So, you just take his word for it, and I mean all of it?”

“If it’s for the protection of my daughter and her future then yes, I just wonder would you do the same if you were in my shoes,” William snapped his eyes hard with a blazing bright blue. It had been the kind of look that choked the life from mountains and soured the air with his ire. Not liking the tone of his challenge Christina spoke out her words a cold heat, “Just what does that mean?”

“Since you have made no effort to want to work with me therefore dooming the only woman you love. I can assume you wanting the pull the stars down for her was just all bullshit,” William managed to strangle out. In that moment she had heard a bit of Ruby within him; and as the passion he gave landed in the cold dead hands of the Braithwhite name, inwardly Christina begrudgingly accepted that he had a point.

“The Mark of Cain will protect them, being here will give me an opportunity of firsts. And it will be something that I couldn’t fulfill two-hundred-years ago.”

Jumping down from his sitting position William faced her as he gave a looming presence that Christina matched equally, “So that’s just it? Do you know the Book of Elohim at its full potential could rip through the Mark of Cain like paper? I can’t believe you would risk everything for a fucking bucket list! I know what you’re doing.”

Slowly batting her eyelashes in annoyance Christina answered evenly, “Just what am I doing William?”

“You’re being a coward! You don’t want to go back to 1955 because you don’t want to face what you did to her.”

“I suggest you stop while your ahead.”

“Why? What’s wrong? You can’t man up, after sticking your cock in her and getting her pregnant? Or what your just mad that your child won’t be white enough? Or are you just too scared to know that your child will be half-black and something not even your father Samuel wanted,” William smirked as his anger pushed out. Like darkened waves that scattered like bits of nightmarish dreams; Christina found it amazing how the tide in him could change so easily as he continued, “Oh, I get it now. You preyed on Ruby didn’t you?” For a moment I used to think you were different from the rest of them and everyone in this damned city, but now I see your just like Titus hims-”

A roaring blinding antagonism of rage came as Christina had not felt the crushing of cartilage and bone breaking under her fist; all there had been was the moment, as she grabbed his collar aiming her pulls and punches to strike his face three times. She had surprised herself as the feeling of an unleashed irritation surged through her, momentarily she thought to the last time she felt like this as it had been with Leti the night of the Equinox; the thrill of it nearly jumped in her blood as William landed back with a thud. Surprised at her own strength, shock couldn’t enlist itself on her face; the anger in her belly burned too bright for effortless moments of surprise. Shaking her hand as his blood littered her knuckles; she spoke coldly as she observed the glimmering skyline, “Normally I’m not one for violence, but you were acting like a spoiled child. You may hate me for my methods, but I felt like this was the perfect solution that deemed appropriate for the moment. Normally not a lot of things irritate me as I don’t find humanity’s interests equal to my own, but dishonesty is one of those few things I can’t seem to get around. If you want to know my opinion, I don’t think you care about your daughter as much as you think you do. It’s just my analysis of the situation, but I think your hiding behind your daughter to stop yourself from doing something I have done ten-times over you; but unlike you I have worked to secure my daughters future even at the sake of my own. With Ruby’s betrayal, in a sense she taught me sacrifice and that much I can do for her in turn. Second, I was **very** aware of what I was doing when I was fucking her, and I **wanted** her to have everything and I mean **everything**. I may have fucked Ruby with my cock, but I am no spineless ingrate of a man to confuse bravery with stupidity. That is where your undoing rests William; but there are a lot of things I could ask about your situation with the mother of your own child. Are you keeping her safe, or are enslaving her?”

“Don’t you dare compare me to your monsters,” William spat his nose dripping with blood.

“They are not exotic animals to be locked up in an ivory cage William. After my spell failed, I thought to Ruby a lot as I sat there under that rubble. She taught me how to walk a decent path not as a man or as a woman; but as a person. And even though I may hate her for betraying me, for me it is something that not even my father and the great Titus Braithwhite could do; so, to compare me to them would work favorably in your detriment.”

The night stood silent as the cold air grew thick and stale like the lab, and as Williams bright sapphires looked up at the woman he understood. And while a part of her knew she had not been one for violence, she had not been resigned from the action completely. Within that moment as William had held his bloody broken nose as the blood stopped, and as he felt his bones reform and heal at a rapid pace, he realized what his father saw in her within the pale light of night.

***

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_**Earth:502** _

_**Coordinates: (2452.397.5097) (302.3489.261)** _

_**Location: Chicago, Dunning** _

_**Year: 1955** _

The ride on the way to Jonah Levin’s office had been a quiet affair between the two women. With the two only passing by with light conversation, not much between Ji-Ah and Ruby passed and yet the two of them seemed like they were on one-accord. Taking the restored Bentley, a part of Ruby hadn’t wanted to attract the attention; but still, she had more pressing matters whispering to her. And as Ruby wanted to know just how the cluttered heap of the foreign car turned out perfectly after the night of their crash; she could only assume that it would go on her long list of unanswered questions. Nervousness collided into Ruby’s chest as she knew Christina and her whiteness were no longer there to protect her; the absentness of the witch had been like a cold splash of water to Ruby, and in such a way she felt herself foolish for lying to her after they had made love within their own bodies. And while the tented windows of the Bentley had been more favorable for them both, it still didn’t stop the world around them and like a child going out into the wide world, Ruby found herself terrified at the prospect of leaving Hyde Park. The musician stared at Ji-Ah as she looked over the copy of the book that they managed to carry; and while Ruby could tell that the nurse wanted to give her commentary, she watched as she held against it.

“If you keep starin’ at that book any longer; your gonna burn holes into it,” Ruby prodded playfully.

“I still don’t understand how this could lead to anything, all I see is just a line,” Ji-Ah explained as she slipped the document in question between the pages of the red bound book.

“Look its nothing fool-proof and really I want to see for myself. At least if we can find the body, we can bury her. She is a Braithwhite, and they have family tombs and museums all over the damn country; just as well someone’s going to know something about a rich little white woman missing. In the city or the country were still in Jim Crow, and even if Christina planned all of this; we still can’t be too careful.”

“And what if we can’t find the body?”

“Someone’s got to know where it is. A couple of nights before the Equinox she was worried her spell wasn’t going to work, but it’s not like her to just put all her eggs in one basket,” Ruby spoke out.

“When I saw into her memories; she was conflicted that night…she didn’t want to kill Atticus, and yet there is so much more I need to tell you,” Ji-Ah insisted. Ruby watched as the grip on the red book tightened and as the woman’s almond shaped eyes focused hard; the musician wondered just what she knew. Pulling up the small workings of the small townie neighborhood it had been a nice patch of shops and services, and as it didn’t take them long to come from Hyde Park; Ruby had seemed like she stumbled upon another world. And as she saw a few men walking up the street, she knew some of them to be of Jewish Descent. Parking the car outside the glassed window a part of her had been happy to call and schedule an appointment; as she got out, she had noticed onlookers as they seemed stunned that someone like her got out of the car. And yet from the corner of her eye, Ruby felt a pair of eyes on her as her peripheral’s caught a shadowed and unnerving figure. Shaking it off in her mind; something in her blood told her more as she fully looked back across the small street.

“Ruby?” With her eyes slipping off from across the street, the musician watched as the Korean woman headed in first.

Slipping in, the heat of the Chicago air had been sealed away from the two women; looking around, the office had been modest as two chairs and a large-oak-wood-desk sat alone within the room next to an old metal fan. The place had been freshly painted as it gave off a new smell, all of it made Ruby wonder about the history behind the painted walls. Expecting to see a man of an Orthodox-Jewish appearance, Ruby had inwardly shook her head. The man that emerged from the back office, had looked to be within his mid-forties; he had a welcoming smile and a small-hovering-nose, and yet as he gave a smile his cheeks lit up the room. Walking up eagerly he held out his hand as Ruby took it.

A sweet accent came to her ears, but the musician had noticed that the man in question had been trying to cover it up under a more favorable American Accent. “It is nice to see you again Ms. Baptiste. Please take a seat, so what can I do for you,” Jonah spoke out as he took his own seat behind the desk. A furrowed brow listed itself on Ruby’s features as she noted the comment for later.

Straightening her back Ruby took her seat as Ji-Ah followed in turn, as the Kumiho handed the former-baby-sitter the book, Ruby fished out the copied documents from its pages. “Yes. I got this in the mail, and I just have a few questions about this document. It says that my signature is on this, but I’m having a hard time making sense of it all,” Ruby had carefully spoken out. For a moment, her brown eye’s watched as the older accountants’ eyes settled on the red-leather bound book.

With his eyes jolting like a spark, he remembered. “Ah yes! Ms. Braithwhite did say you would be a bit confused about everything; that document I would want to hold on to. And since you and your descendants are the sole heir to the Braithwhite fortune, it goes without saying that you own everything. Black-skin, white money is all I can say to you; you’re an incredibly lucky lady.”

“What do you mean,” Ruby asked as she knew that the white woman was rich; but she couldn’t measure just how well-off the family had been, as she’d never heard of them until she met Christina that night at the bar.

“The Braithwhite’s themselves are White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, they come from old money. A lot of people that run in the same groups say that the Braithwhite’s own parts of this country that **they** don’t even know about. Still, it was Ms. Braithwhite that set up this operation seeing as the bank would not let her do so as it was based on the fact of your status.”

“I can’t blame them, as not many White-Women are out here giving their whole family fortune to Black folks and a Black-Woman no less,” Ruby commented knowing the extenuating facts that were weighed down by the worlds view of her blackness.

“When she came to me about you, I had no issue putting everything together for her. That woman came out of nowhere one day; and what she did for me is anything but short of a miracle,” Jonah explained.

“What do you mean?”

“Well Ms. Baptiste, recently my services were bought by Ms Braithwhite; you see my family had fled here from Berlin, and well back in those times before the Party came into power my father Jacob Levin was an accountant. You see my father had known a few connections in America; so, when Hitler and his thugs came into office, he was prepared. My father had special interests overseas as he always been a man with a plan. So, when Hitler started his purging of men, women, and children of Jewish-Origin; it was his friend by the name of Clarissa Cunningham that helped my mother and I flee to America in‘33. Unfortunately, my father and older sister stayed back. They were killed in Auschwitz two years later. Yet destiny has an interesting way of working things out; after coming to America, I saved up enough money to open a small accounting business, for over twenty-years I was able to help those around me. Yet with all the Anti-Jewish Sentiment coming from the locals it made things hard, seven broken windows, three-fires, and two attacks to my staff and me. To put it simply the customers stopped coming; it made things hard on the pockets. For me, I guess…I’m another Kike on America’s doorstep, no offense to you two bright young ladies and your struggles.”

“None taken,” both women offered to the older man.

“Just as I was thinking about closing for good; it was only a month and a half-ago that I met Ms. Braithwhite. At first with those eyes and that hair I thought she was some Fräulein Nazi Bitch coming to finish what Hitler and his monsters started; and yet she didn’t as Christina told me that she had been Clarissa’s daughter.”

“How did she find you exactly,” Ji-Ah asked.

“She claimed that she found me through one of her mother’s old letters to my father. So, when she had told me that Joseph Lindencroft the man who had murdered my father and sister back in Auschwitz had been killed in some unfortunate fire, it gave me some comfort. After that she said she wanted to invest in my Accounting Firm, and true to her word she did; yet I couldn’t forget the debt I owed to both her and her mother. That’s when I gave her that book as my way of thanking her,” Jonah gestured to the red book that Ji-Ah held.

“Did you hear from her again after that,” the musician slipped out.

“It had only been until a month ago, that she came to me and she told me about leaving it all.”

“Leaving what exactly,” Ji-Ah asked as Ruby absorbed the story.

“I don’t know. She went on about leaving to find some place; it was something about a future or a plan I don’t know, but what I know was that she insisted on leaving everything to you Ms. Baptiste. All I could tell you about that night was that she was broken up about something, I could see it in her eyes. I didn’t ask her much, but when she asked me to have a Transfer of Assets to you it had been as if she…knew she was leaving something behind. That is why I was surprised when you came in the next day to sign the paperwork Ms. Baptiste; you looked so calm and collected, speaking of which how was your trip to Massachusetts?”

Caught off guard Ruby struggled to find the words, but she did, “I-It was fine, so… it says in the document that I’m the owner of a town called Ardham. Where is that exactly?”

“Well, Ardham is a small town owned by The Braithwhite Estate in Massachusetts; it’s bordered by a place called Devon County. According to the paperwork it’s the Braithwhite Summer home along with the other seventeen estates around the country itself; also, there is the traditionally appointed Cunningham Estate in Hyde-Park here in Chicago. Really, I thought with your trip to Massachusetts you would have seen the Ardham Estate.”

“Did I…mention anyone on this trip that I was going on?”

“You said you were riding with your sister and her boyfriend’s family; you also went on to say that the air from the trip would do you and the baby some good.” The pit of lasting confusion brought Ruby to a place in her mind that she had not dared to go; and with it she thought back to the blonde’s words.

 _“Your right, we wanna be you and you wanna be us.”_ Glancing to the barely visible pin-prick in her arm, Ruby had been alarmed at what transpired. _She did this all, and she knew I was…_

“You mentioned something about a baby,” Ji-Ah asked clearly listening.

“Yes…let me see.” Digging in his desk he pulled out a file as he slipped on his glasses, as his nimble-wrinkled-fingers slipped through the pages he found what he was looking for. “Yes. It says here that Ms. Braithwhite had left the Cunningham and Braithwhite Estates to you, and she legally claimed an heir by the name o-”

“Thea Braithwhite,” Ruby’s hand had shaken in her lap, and as Ji-Ah had gripped her hand in comfort the tremors stopped.

“Yes, according to my paperwork she has claimed your unborn child Theodora as her heir. Just as well she has listed an overwhelming number of private tutors when the child is of age.”

Ruby’s eyes furrowed in confusion as she asked, “How the hell can she do something like that? I’m a Black-Woman from the Southside? No Black-Woman or child in all of Chicago has that much power.”

“The logistics of that Ms. Baptiste is my field of expertise. You have nothing to worry about ladies; Ms. Braithwhite instructed that from now all the way until and after your baby is born, that my services stay exclusively to your disposal,” Jonah spoke out.

“That day you saw Christina did she say where she was going,” Ruby asked.

“Vaguely, she said that she was going to some Observatory in Mayfield. From what I gathered it was in Kansas. All I know is that there is another matter that requires your attention as Ms. Braithwhite left this for you.” Pulling out a white envelope there had been a weight to it, and as Ruby opened it to see a strange-circled-key she didn’t recognize it. Not noticing it Ruby had looked to Ji-Ah as she gave a knowing look to her, staring back to the old accountant Ruby and Ji-Ah stood up as the Jewish-Man did so in turn.

“Oh yes there is one last matter concerning the Turner Estate.”

“ **Another** one?”

“Well, your baby and you are very wealthy now; and stress isn’t good for her or you, so I’ll make this simple. Now as for the Turner Estate this one is not under the Braithwhite or Cunningham name; it belonged to a Dorothy Turner originally, but she passed eighteen-years ago. Her daughter Macy has been in control of the Turner Estate ever since and so far, I haven’t been able to contact her and she keeps sending back my letters. There’s a bit of money in the Turner Estate, but I can’t get in a word edge-wise to tell Macy that when I call.”

Pulling out another envelope from his desk; Jonah handed it to Ruby as she took the letter in hand without looking at it. “Where does she live,” Ruby asked curious to know what was going on as she sensed that all of this had been connected.

“She lives in Kansas. I figured if you were going to take a trip out there maybe you could forward some mail to her,” Jonah spoke out evenly.

“I’ll look for it,” Ruby slipped out very curious to see where all of this led.

“Are you sure? The roads would be dangerous for you ladies and I’ve heard things about Devon County as well. I heard some Sheriffs went missing, and the search team that looked for them did as well.”

“Don’t worry we’ll do our best to watch out for each other, and stick to the backroads,” Ji-Ah spoke up timidly as she got up. Turning around to leave, Ruby slightly turned again a question nagging her mind as curiosity burrowed into her.

“Just who was Dorothy Turner?”

Leaning forward to flip through his paperwork Jonah spoke out, “According to Christina herself, she was the Cunningham Estates Maid; I met Dorothy only once in 1936, and it was her who told me about Clarissa dying. From what Dorothy told me she said that Clarissa was kind to her; as for Christina herself, she had been very keen about granting the Turners their own estate. At the age of sixteen its said that she even went over her father’s head to make it so. Yet even with my father’s friendship to Clarissa, the details of how Dorothy came out of their service might be something her daughter Macy can speak on. Now mind you there is a Braithwhite crypt that is here as well, as Clarissa herself is buried at Hyde Park Cemetery. If you want, I can take you on a tour sometime.”

“No need my own mother is there,” Ruby walked out her chest slightly clear of confusion.

“Just a word of advice Ms. Baptiste. The Braithwhite women are complicated…and the answers to what they do may not always be understood.” Ruby gave a small nod before walking out. Getting in the Silver Bentley, Ji-Ah joined her as her eyes looked straight forward in confusion and then to her in clarity.

“I just remembered something…it was important.”

“What?”

“The moment I saw into Christina the Night of the Equinox…she came to Atticus and she asked for the book.”

“Yes, at my momma’s grave Leti told me that Christina came to ask for the Book of Names and when Tic told her no, she removed the Mark of Cain from her,” Ruby completed.

“Leti she…lied. That night Christina had offered for another way to complete her spell without using Tic’s blood. She promised to leave everyone alone if they gave her the book. So, when Atticus refused to give her the book that was when she grew angry and took back Leti’s Mark; but the night of the Equinox she put it back on her. It wasn’t out of anger, but out of sadness with herself and…for Atticus and you. I think she wanted to save him.” Tightening her grip on the steering-wheel; the trembling of her bottom lip quivered, and as Ruby started the engine her anger turned into tearful-hard-glass in her eyes.

“W-Where are we going?”

“Were going to get a Travel Guide.” Pulling the car out she zoomed down the road, the boiling of her blood had given life to the engine under her foot. And for a moment she felt her lover’s actions driving her as she sped on the road, her wheels going to the broken steps of the Southside.

***

“Why am I not surprised. It seems like all you snakes are gathered here right now.” The ringing of the door had rung as Ruby strolled in the Guide-Shop as if she owned the place. Conveniently Leti, Hippolyta, and Montrose had been all in the front; and as their smiles melted like snow against Ruby’s red-hot fury a nervousness lingered in them. Leti looked around as Ji-Ah had stood silently behind her before coming forward; the light features on Leti’s face had stumbled as the words in her throat nearly choked the life out of her.

“Ji-Ah? I thought you went back to Korea?” Taking off her shoes and earrings Ruby had readied herself, “I thought you were a snake in the grass, but this you can never come back from. I’m going to do what I should’ve been doing a long ass time ago.”

Rushing over Montrose and Ji-Ah quickly came in the middle of the two as Montrose gained momentum in his voice, and while he shouted over Ruby’s anger the room filled with chaos. As Ruby reached over a restraining Ji-Ah to strike at a fearful Leti the musician finally let it out, “You fucking ungrateful ass! You lied and said that Christina took the mark from you! You lied on our mothers’ grave when you said she threatened you! She came here to make peace with all of you ungrateful bitches, and you didn’t take it. You knew I was happy, and your jealous ass took it away from me! Atticus is dead because of you!”

Shouting over everyone Montrose had broken through, “You need to get the fuck outta here!”

“No, you need to get the fuck back Montrose,” Ruby pointed at the drunkard before turning to the time-traveler, “And you! Don’t sit in that corner and act innocent Hippolyta, Christina saved your damn daughter! All of you sat here and once again fucked me over! That woman may have been shit in your eyes, but she gave you everything and all you fucked it up. You placed the blame on someone who didn’t deserve it. You stay the fuck away from me and my daughter all of you!”

Shock came on Leti’s face as she couldn’t believe what she heard, “W-Wait what…your pregnant. How?”

“You didn’t stop to think about that did you? Christina gave me the love of a family something you couldn’t even do as my sister, because you were too selfish and looking out for yourself. You may have taken magic from all White people, but my baby has my blood; and she owns it all, not your son nor the Order.”

The shock came down like a velvet curtain as she side-stepped Montrose and from it Leti’s own anger grew into a challenge. “Your baby may have it all, but we own it all. The Book of Names is ours and there’s no stopping what we can do. Do you know what the real William Davenport did? He worked with Hiram Epstein to harm ours; and yet you sit up here carrying his child!”

“It’s Christina’s baby and your right...you may hold the keys to the kingdom; but you’re forgetting that I have just as much magic in me as you do right now. And Christina was no slouch Book of Names or not. You know, it was one thing when you failed momma; but it is another thing when you screwed me over. So now I’m going to make the choice that I couldn’t make a month ago, next time you come near me or my child I will not hesitate to beat your scrawny little ass,” Ruby spoke out coolly. An angered knowing look rolled from Ruby’s face like thunder; and like lightning she grabbed the waiting travel-guide that sat on the shelf. As Ji-Ah looked back longingly to Leti, she scurried off heading out the door to join Ruby in the Bentley.

***

_**Earth:502** _

_**Coordinates: (2452.397.5097) (302.3489.261)** _

_**Location: Route 77** _

_**Year: 1955** _

Miles of green widened its arms to the open road; and as Ruby drove on within the afternoon sun, a freedom lingered in the air. It had been after the moment back at Hippolyta’s that fueled the fire within the Southside musician. Like a whirlwind Ruby had gathered what she could as she packed and made her way for the Bentley; and while Ji-Ah followed silently, a part of Ruby had a moment as she had felt that her body had not been her own. Yet that had been nearly a day ago as they were deep into the county line; it had taken them nearly two days to reach their destination, and as the crippling morning sickness of Ruby started, it had left the Korean woman to drive deep into the morning as determination had sat on her face as well. Out on the open road there had been a freedom that came with fear, and yet as their trip took them on backroads that the Travel-Guide and Christina’s notes provided them; a part of Ruby thanked god as the backroads of Route 77 led them somewhat peacefully along their route. And while the two passed between county’s only one black-owned boarding house had provided shelter for the musician and nurse. A pooling fear ate at Ruby as they passed around the Sundown Towns that littered the area. There had been moments within their drive that made Ruby shudder to think of what would happen if the wrong eye caught them. Staring to the glove compartment for a moment and then to Ji-Ah as she looked on at the map in her hands, she had noticed another county sheriff’s car passing them.

“I thought there would be no one on these roads,” Ji-Ah spoke up looking from her map, as Ruby stared at the road finally well enough to drive.

“I thought so too, but they’ve been passing by us like where invisible; still, we can’t take our chances as we are two-colored girls driving a vehicle that’s worth more than our lives. We have to get off these roads, before they think we stole this thing,” Ruby suggested as she looked at the map and then to the Asian woman. As Ruby wondered why the Korean woman had stuck with her this long, the musician’s suspicions of the woman had died down after the conflict with Leti. Leaving it to chance, Ruby assumed that Ji-Ah had been looking for her own answers as a part of the musician silently thanked her for her presence.

“Were almost there. Ruby?”

“Mmm?”

“Do you think it could be another spell. On the car?” Ruby gave a shrug as she kept her eyes steady on the map before looking up as she watched as another car passed them. From the shine of the window, she had noticed that their Bentley hadn’t reflected within the shine of the other cars black paint. Only an empty road had been; as Ruby’s mouth slightly hung open, she looked to the compartment of the glove box. Keeping her eyes on the road as she looked, there next to a silver pistol she noticed something strange. Tilting her head, she spotted the queer mark that had been shaped in a geometrical symbol, it had looked the same as the symbol that Christina had given her back at Lancaster’s.

“She did this. We have to hurry we don’t know if this will fade,” Ruby warned as she thought to the Metamorphosis Spell. The moment was stiff as the hairs on the back of Ruby’s neck sensed Ji-Ah’s question coming a mile away.

“All of that back there…in Chicago with Leti…did you mean it?” Ruby tightened her grip on the steering wheel; there had been a pain in her, and yet the throbbing new life in her told her otherwise.

“You know…when you told me not to kill that little love that was left in me; I wanted to slap you right then and there. Yet you could not have been more right. That white-witch as cruel and cold as she could be, knew what I wanted the most. To be honest it took my momma dying to recognize Leti for who she is.”

“My mother never apologized for anything in her life,” Ji-Ah added her distant-eyes looking to the brushing trees as they drove.

“It seems we have more in common than I thought. While my momma never apologized for anything, I always said sorry for everyone and everything. Sorry for not being black enough, sorry for not being happy enough, sorry for not being dumb enough, sorry for not loving enough. Leti and my mother always lived in a dream, and even as I watched my momma waste away and even as she vomited and coughed up blood and begged me to kill her; I was fearful not just of her dying, but I was fearful of myself dying as well. With Leti I felt the same as I was too chicken-shit to let her go. I had to sacrifice growing up when it came to Leti, so much so that I sacrificed myself and I almost did the same to this child. So yes, I mean it. My sister has to find her own way without my help and now that she’s got a family of her own, she’s going to have to see to them like I see to mine.”

“I thought I found a family with Atticus and everyone; and I still think they are family, but…I noticed that your family too.”

“You know… before the Equinox Leti told me that family was a choice, and not an obligation; but right now, I’m choosing to be obligated to my child and happiness. And I’m not gonna let Leti take that away again.”

“Do you hate her?” It was a small question coming from Ji-ah, but small never meant heavy.

“No, I don’t, but I have nothing for her now. A part of me can’t blame my sister for not telling me about Christina’s Peace Treaty, she protected her own child just like I'm doing now. Yet still I can’t forgive her for something that I would’ve done for her already, if she had told the truth I know things would’ve been different, but I still would’ve gone that extra mile for her.” Pulling into the dirt-paved-road Ji-Ah stopped as she looked to the weathered-wood-carved address that sat in front of the endless waves of tall grass. Ruby looked questionably before asking, “Are you sure this is the place.”

“Yes.”

As silver slipped in between the vast parted sea of green, the sound of a large murder of crows howled out in the distance. Gravel and dust slipped up in between the wheel of the car leaving a trail of dust, the road bumped lifting the two of them. Moments slipped into short passing minutes as Ruby pulled up finding smooth road in front of a farm. The small house had been made of poor quality, there had been a rusted-windmill, weathered chicken-coop, and chipped-red-painted barn as the large-thick-bodied-oak loomed over the tin-rusted roof of the house. The mailbox in the front had been made of the same old tin as well. Hanging from the tree an old swing swung with the ghosted wind that threatened to approach as the place reminded her of Marvin’s. A guiding wind brushed with the smell of summer as Ruby sensed that Tornado Season was coming to an end soon. Yet her alarm was replaced as the carrying smell of fresh food watered Ruby’s mouth as it passed through the wood-chipped screen-door. Getting out the Southsider looked to the name as Turner had been marked in crude writing. Walking up to the door the splintered-old-wood reminded Ruby of Leti’s place, but the moment soured as she smoothed out her green floral dress. 

A small and slender woman came to the door as the hacking cough of cigarettes wafted on her persona; and while the Summer spirits of the late afternoon came, both women noticed that the thin-boned-woman at the door had looked like a shadowed ghost. Her cheeks had been sunken showing her brown blazing cheekbones; and as her wig had been gray and matted, her brownish-gray-eyes were as weathered as the mailbox that sat outside the house. Her blue dress had been pinned and sown to as it hid the boney lumps of her back; and as medicine slid from her pores Ruby had knew, as the fragile woman in front of her reminded the musician of her own mother during her final days.

“You the Ruby Baptiste that I spoke to on the phone?”

“Yes, are you Ms. Turner?”

Giving a grayish brown eye to the two she tightly nodded, “Ms. Turner was my momma; no…I’m her daughter Macy. Who is your friend here?” Side-eying the Korean woman a part of Ruby shared the nurse’s pain. “This is my associate Ji-Ah as we are here on some business from Mr. Levin.”

“I thought my son had done enough killing in Korea, he hadn’t wrote to me in two-months. And yet I thought I would never see us Colored-Folks with no Gook, the War couldn’t have ended that fast.” The slits in the-older-woman’s eyes reminded Ruby of the angry gardener back in Hyde Park; and yet so much of it reminded her of Leti. And while it was nauseating to stomach the self-righteous-all-black-only bullshit that her sister tried to push, she now blamed it on the aroma of death that lingered on the woman in front of her. Looking back to the Korean woman her face had been like steel as if she were prepared for it, and while the corpses of the Korean War stuck like a stench in the American subconscious; Ruby’s eyes met Ji-Ah’s as she gave a small smile to her as she bottled up the hurt that strung up in her eyes.

The words from the older woman stung within Ruby’s chest; and just as she was about to give the older woman a piece of her mind, Ji-Ah had been the first to speak, “I’ll wait outside.”

“Well hold on, now. You might as well come in since the both of you called ahead. Those Cracka’s are out full-force these days; they’ll be coming up the roads from Cowley County to look for some blood, and they’ll settle for you if they can’t get to us. White folks round here are up and arms because of that little Chicago boy gettin’ killed in Mississippi. To think he would whistle at some white woman; lord, what’s the world coming to? Knowing that white-wench she lied. Yet a lie or truth don’t take much these days with us…it never did. Now come on the foods getting cold,” the older sandy-brown skinned-woman sternly commanded. Ruby gave an awaiting look to Ji-Ah as she nodded, even in her pain she wore the woman’s harsh slur like armor as she approached the door.

“Thank you.”

***

Waddling in, the three sat at the table as the fresh meal of Smothered Porkchops, Green Beans, Mac n’ Cheese, Sweet-Tea and Sweet-Potato-Pie. While Ruby enjoyed the food Ji-Ah nimbly pecked at her own plate, making Ruby assume that the lack of hospitality had done her palate in. Taking one more bite of the Green Beans the taste had been slightly sweeter, in the moment Ruby gave an absent-minded rub to her belly. The thought of dinner reminded Ruby of the blonde; whether she was in the body of William or herself she preferred Ruby’s own variation of Green Beans, as she added a touch of vinegar to the vegetable to pickle the taste of it. Inwardly Ruby smiled at the chaos of their relationship; it had been like vinegar too sour to turn and too bitter to be worn, and yet despite it all they shared something sweet.

“The food was delicious Ms. Turner,” Ruby complemented as the tension from earlier cooled.

“Thank you baby. It’s not always that I get visitors and in my last days it’s good to have a few,” the older woman noted as she stood to collect the plates. The house had been small as the kitchen itself had been a corner while the living-room had been attached. The four-seat table of the kitchen had an old-fashioned stove and sink; and while the living-room had drifted in between both living and dining spaces, it made Ruby curious to know just what the Turner Estate was. The living-room had been lined with a knitted multi-colored throw carpet while an old wooden coffee table lingered, the worn sofa had been a darkened red as it gave comfort to the black-iron-casted-wood-burner that sat near the rocking chair. A large radio had lined up on the wall of the room near the couch, and across from the sofa the bedroom only lingered as an outhouse had been posted in the back of the house. It was the perfect place to die, as it had been alone in the middle of nowhere. For Ruby it had been too quiet to hear another’s screams; yet silent enough to hear one’s own thoughts.

Taking out the letter from her clutch a nervousness gathered in Ruby’s hands; and as the older woman took her seat along with three green mugs and a large coffee pot, the two women graciously acknowledged the offer.

“I came to give you this. Mr. Levin had told me that it came back from the post,” Ruby said sliding the letter on the table.

“I told that White-Cracka-Wench last time she come up here that I don’t want her money. My momma worked and did her duty to Ms. Cunningham all the way till the end. Dorothy Turner has been dead for about eighteen years now, she worked her fingers to the bone raising all them white babies; she sent me to school and I gots seven good years in before I moved out to Kansas City in 1906 when I was just seventeen.”

“It’s a lot of money,” Ruby suggested easing the older woman into it, and yet Ruby ultimately knew she couldn’t change her mind.

“Now what would I look like if I took her money? That’s what white folks want; they want us begging them so they can feel important. You know me and her argued a lot over them blonde haired and blued-eyed devils…and I got my butt switched up mighty plenty for it when I was a girl.” The older woman gave a fond smile into the distance, her mouth puckering to continue, for the grave storm of bitterness traveled to her brow, “My momma didn’t even flinch when I moved out at seventeen; of course, she wouldn’t no…she was too busy raisin’ them Cunningham’s and Braithwhite’s to care. All her love she had to give she gave it to them white babies. Who gives all their love for someone else’s babies, and not your own? That’s why when my momma moved to Chicago for work back in 1894, she left me and my older brother here back in Kansas.”

“You said there were Cunningham’s and Braithwhite’s?”

“Cunningham’s, Braithwhite’s my momma saw her way to three-generations of them. For the Cunningham’s death had always been a sure thing; my momma said she’d never seen such a thing, she said it was like one soul driftin’ onto another. Every time a new Cunningham would show another would go; it was January 12, 1895 when my momma had delivered Ms. Clarissa into the world. She said it was as if one house had been mournin’ while the other had been jumpin’ to glory; unfortunately, they did a lot more mournin’ as they would have to bury Ms. Clarissa’s mother as she died havin’ her. On and off my momma would send money to my older brother Richard to keep the house up back here in Kansas; but he spent every nickel drinking it up like our daddy did, but unlike him the bottle didn’t take my brother, but the Second Great War took him. While my momma was working, my brother and I took to the Tobacco Fields up North of here for a spell. At the time it was just the two of us, two children in this world full of demons and devils; some of them would wear their own faces and others would hide them with sheets.”

The older woman’s eyes drifted; and as Ruby could sense the woman’s tears, the musician knew that none would fall as all her grief within her had dried up years ago. Setting a hand on top of hers their eyes met, and as Ruby didn’t notice that Ji-Ah started tending to the dishes, she knew that the Korean woman had made herself as small and unknown as possible. Yet she could see the Korean Woman’s ears peak in to listen as the sickly woman continued, “I know the Lord tells me I shouldn’t hates them; the Cunningham’s were good to my momma. From the moment my momma delivered Ms. Clarissa into the world; that little white girl was stuck to her hip, really by the Grace of God I wasn’t surprised her daughter was the same when she came up to my door. Momma always had a way with the children she raised, just never a way with us. Ms. Clarissa wanted my momma there every step of the way, even when she got married and moved from Chicago to Massachusetts.”

“Married to who?”

“Samuel Braithwhite. He had married Ms. Clarissa back in 1913; she was eighteen and still a child herself, but with her father getting sicker by the day, they needed her to push out an heir. You see now, Ms. Clarissa’s father was the true owner to the estate; he was a good man, but he had a loose hand when it came to money. Shame they sold that girl down the river, but it was a good thing Samuel wasn’t paddlin’ up Ms. Clarissa’s stream and it had been that way for years. He was too busy building some Lodge with his gambling buddies to even care. Momma would go on and on about these men; told me they weren’t from no Klan, but they spoke about magic like in the fairy tale books. Of course, by the time I heard this momma was getting up there in age, and for a minute my husband James and I moved to Massachusetts to keep an eye on her around the same time.”

“Did you ever meet him? Samuel, I mean,” Ruby asked as she knew the name had shared a connection, and yet she needed the final piece to put it together.

“I only met him once. All’s I can say is if there were a King of all Cracka’s he would be it; that white devil of a man looked down on momma and me like we was nothing. Yet that was the one thing Mrs. Clarissa wouldn’t put up with when it came to my momma and Samuel; still that snake in the grass wasn’t like most men. While some men were coming home to knock their wives upside the head; and while others were out drinking, gambling, and whoring the night away in some Speakeasy, Samuel Braithwhite was a different kind of demon.”

“What do you mean?”

“According to my momma he would never beat Ms. Clarissa; but whenever they were together away from her, Ms. Clarissa would say it was like something would be taken away from her. I remember one time my momma said that Ms. Clarissa told her that Samuel put some kinda devil magic on her. There would be days when that white woman wouldn’t talk or eat, and there would be days that Samuel looked through her like glass. That snake didn’t care for Ms. Clarissa too much, and so long as Ms. Clarissa’s daddy was around nothing serious happened; that was until…”

“Until?”

“That was until the Cunningham’s eventually lost their money when the Depression came in ’29. Rich Cracka Breads are more fragile than what we know; and Mr. Cunningham was no different, he had already been on his last two dollars when his daughter married Samuel. However, the Braithwhite name still gained while everyone lost; my momma had told me the walls talked in the Braithwhite home, as some say that Samuel done robbed Clarissa’s father blind for something. It had to be the last of Mr. Cunningham’s money, cause in the Spring of ‘29 Ms. Clarissa’s daddy took his last breath. With only the Cunningham Crypt and the Chicago Property left after her daddy’s death; it was the only thing Mrs. Clarissa could save as she was set on keepin’ her distance from Samuel.”

“The property wouldn’t be Hyde Park would it,” Ruby asked.

“Yes, that’s the one. After her father passed, Ms. Clarissa had spent most of her time with my momma in Chicago. Seein’ as she was away from Samuel and he was away from her it suited them both fine. That was until Ms. Clarissa found out she was pregnant in the Spring of 1930; my momma said the thought of it nearly changed Samuel. She said he shot off like lightning to Chicago; with him finishing that Lodge up in Ardham, my momma said Samuel waited all of Ms. Clarissa’s pregnancy for his son. That was until the Winter of ‘31 when my momma pulled a daughter into this world. Poor child…my momma told me she had been fighting since she done came into this world. I don’t know just how much she remembered; but my momma said there was a big storm the night of that girl’s birth, the roads were blocked off and Samuel was nowhere around. All I know is my momma said she saw that baby when she delivered her as the life flew from her; but she swears by the good book that when she gave that baby-girl to Ms. Clarissa…that she said something to that little cold lifeless girl, and like Lazarus himself she screamed as loud as that storm did that night. It was Ms. Clarissa that allowed my momma to name her, Christina Braithwhite was her name.”

The musician looked on as she saw watered-glass within Ji-ah’s eyes as she rejoined the table, and as Ruby felt herself teeter on the verge of tears; a large gap of guilt gathered in her chest. The apprehension jittered in the air and as wind caught itself in Ruby’s chest, she felt the last dying embers of Summer began to cool. And as she felt herself learning about the woman that was Christina Braithwhite, Ruby couldn’t help but feel left out as she blamed herself for her inability to listen. _Why didn’t she tell me this, why couldn’t she tell me? Why didn’t I listen?_

 _“Do you care for William at all… other than the opportunity he’s providing you?”_ It had been a haunting question; and as the Southsider dared to answer, it would be Christina to come to bed as her presence comforted Ruby from her own self-fulfilling lies. After it was revealed that she was William; only for a moment Ruby could remember the thin outline of the blonde the first night they slept together. Ruby couldn’t forget the first night as she found herself wanting to do more than sleep when it came to the witch; the thought of it scared her, and yet it ate away at her like a cancer so much so that she found herself back on the Southside watching Dee. Their routine had reflected their souls in so many ways, and as both of them were like unknown bold spirits that had been unleashed into the world, they hid at the true sight of each other. When they weren’t fueled by potions or staged words, night had been their cover. And while Christina came to bed late into nights morning, it had been Ruby who had been quick to wake as she watched her. It was a tangible temptation, as Ruby could remember the small silhouette of Christina Braithwhite as her frame had been died in midnight eternal; Ruby had said no words as she peeked from the corner of her eye. The musician knew for the white-witch, it had always been a thing for her to make herself as small as she could whenever she came to Ruby within her own skin. Even in the dark Ruby had remembered the limitless uncertainty that came with the blonde; and it took the true weight of Christina Braithwhite as she sunk into her on their last night for Ruby to know. The hungry looks, the passionate promises, the tumbling tremble that came to Christina’s lined-lips whenever her greenish-blue gems stared at her. Ruby knew it all now as Christina Braithwhite’s timidness had not been out of respect for her sleep; but out of something more as the woman had been on fire for her.

A parting pity came to Ruby back then, and even as the day’s fragrance faded from her slender body; Christina had made it a point to remove her watch first. The trinket had been a small thing, almost as inconsequential as breathing, but it had been a thing of habit; and as the Southside singer made it a habit to trace the lines that shaded the blonde’s essence, even under her own hidden lust Ruby found something. Christina Braithwhite was a small thing that sat within the strange high house that centered itself in Hyde Park; it been one of the many reasons why she took to cooking for the blonde. Ruby knew it wasn’t her place to take care of the selfishness of Christina Braithwhite; no, she had enough of self-preserving white folks and their self-told-glory when she was a Charwoman. It had been a matter of pride more than anything when it came to her stay at Hyde Park, as Ruby knew nothing came for free. This had been much more different than an opportunity from a dead man, that dream had died as soon as William’s flesh fell from Christina Braithwhite’s slender frame. No…it was something more, it had been the stirrings of freedom, and within that liberation it had been the peeping gray foundations of a twisted and truthful love.

Opening her lips Ruby had spoken again this time she had withheld the tears within her eyes, as she hardened her resolve like stone, “Did your mother ever hear anything about a group called the Order of the Ancient Dawn?”

“Momma mentioned something to me about it; but she made sure not to have me tell, she told me they were dangerous men more so than those bedsheet wearing fools. After Ms. Christina had been born Samuel had hardened himself more than ever; at first, he had refused to claim the child as his own. But that blonde-haired-blue-eyed baby was his image down to the letter of God. I heard from another staff member that it was only when some Kraut-Cracka named Joseph Lindencroft came to the Ardham Estate in the year of ’45; that Samuel started to claim the girl as his own, but barely that. Yet my momma told me that Lindencroft and Samuel would exchange letters. Yet, before they met things were a lot worse.”

“And Clarissa?”

“Ms. Clarissa’s body was never really the same after she gave birth, and Samuel moved her back to Ardham the following year. She stayed alive for as long as she could until…one night, back in ‘33 Samuel had some men take Ms. Clarissa; all my momma could do was keep that little girl safe,” Macy slipped out.

“Do you know the date when they took Clarissa?”

“No. All I know is after that night my momma told me what happened, but after she never told anyone else about it and I never did, since then it’s been eighteen years. All I know is that night shortly after Ms. Clarissa had passed; my momma stayed with that girl, that was until the Summer of ’37 and that’s when my momma got sick. I had already known that my momma’s mind was leavin’ but I wasn’t prepared that day.” A small tremble came to the older woman’s throat as she continued, “I-I don’t know how that little girl was able to reach us but thank god she did. I had never heard a little soul cry out the way she did over the phone. Immediately my husband and I went down to Ardham and when I saw what they…”

There had been a small tremor in her hand as they had been planted deeply into the wood. Ruby’s hand covered the elderly woman’s hand, and while Ji-Ah had grabbed the other the moment had been raw and tangible, and as the older woman closed her eyes as tears fell, she continued, “Lord how mercy give me strength. When we…got there some Davon County Sheriff said that there had been an incident. Samuel was there as I remember his men placing my momma in a large potato sack and dumpin’ her in front of us like she was nothin’. Even long after she had passed… it looked like the Ardham locals took turns dragging her from behind their truck. All I could remember was that little baby crying and her not wanting to let go of my momma’s body as we took her. We buried her out back and now she’s next to my husband, brother, and hopefully me. It’s a horrible thing to live alone, but it’s more unbearable to die alone.”

_“Do you care?”_

_“You want me to say yes?”_

_“I don’t want you to say anything!”_ The never-ending tide came back to Ruby as she felt herself walking down those same steps back in Chicago. She thought to the question the blonde asked and then to the woman whose table she now sat at. The crashing wind flapped within her lungs as Ruby remembered her eyes as she had been nearly inches away from the blonde; her response had been keen, yet her eyes had glossed over staring at her never blinking as Ruby’s heart broke.

_“No.”_

_“No. What?”_

_“I don’t care about Emmett Till. I don’t care about Roy Bryant or JW Milam who’ll never see justice for what they did. I don’t care that half of the city’s on the brink because of it and I don’t think that you really do either.”_

A stone lump limped in Ruby’s throat as it dared to choke her, and as she set a hand to her belly a part of her felt a great disservice to the child within her. The wistful longings of the musician’s soul screamed as she had been angry not at the truth, but angry at herself as she now knew there had been more to the woman behind those hard-blue-glassed-eyes.

Cutting into her Ruby focused on the diminutive voice of Ji-Ah as it broke through, “Did you see Christina after that?”

“N-No after we picked up momma, I didn’t see that child; that was until the Summer of ’47. I don’t know how she found me, but she did. She stepped outta her fancy car and clothes; and she strutted to my porch like she was the pick of the litter; that day I nearly thought I saw Clarissa’s ghost when she showed up here. She was cockier than a rooster in a hen house that one, and just as cold as a serpent; at the time I just lost my husband, and with the bank charging more to my installment contract each month, some would say Christina Braithwhite was a godsend. Yet when she came, she had offered to take my husband and my momma to the Cunningham plot and pay my debts; I damn near wanted to shoot her dead for her remark, but she scurried off like a little boy who had picked a fight and lost.”

“Did you see her again,” Ruby asked almost eagerly.

“I say eight-years done went by before I seen her again. Still even then, I could tell she had changed; there was something darker in the girl and sadder all the same. I blame her father for the most of it as those Cracka’s have no shame even after death. To her Dorothy Turner may have been family, but my momma had to give up this family to do so. We Negroes have been turning the bloody soil of this country for far too long; and its people like Ms. Christina that needa learn that black folks’ souls aren’t for her to claim or buy. That is why I told Mr. Levin and that blonde-wench to keep their money. Even if I gots me the Kingdom of Heaven, I can see why Ms. Christina mentioned you the last time I seen her; your eyes remind me of my momma’s.”

“Me,” Ruby asked in disbelief as she had been slightly swayed from her sadness at the complement.

“You said Christina came back again,” Ji-Ah asked wanting to know.

“I would say Ms. Christina came up here near a month and a half ago. I don’t know why she came back here; it had been eight years since I last saw her. The girl still went on about that money and I still refused, and she told me that Cracka father of hers was dead. After that she went on jawing about some mess about being able to heal me, of course I didn’t believe her. So, I shooed her off my porch again,” Macy spoke out, giving a dismissed wave of a hand to the open air.

“Did she say where she was going,” Ruby pressed on as she looked to Ji-Ah.

“She told me she was on her way to some old place called the Winthrop somethin’ it’s just Northeast from here.”

“Was it called Winthrop’s Observatory,” the Kumiho asked.

“Yes. She asked me if she could borrow the tools in the barn before she went up there and I let her have them; so long as I didn’t see her face around here no more. After that she told me she was going to be a mother, and she told me that she had fallen in love with some singer in Chicago on the Southside. Lordie her soul was shinin’ with light that day, and I could see a piece of my momma in those eyes. After that she left, and ever since then it’s just been me in this old house.” 

Ruby smiled as she set a hand on her belly, she had no more tears to give. And while the stark bitterness within her faded, the loudness of Ruby’s heart replaced the doubt within her mind. The fog in her heart lifted as her path had been clear; and yet other curiosities lingered on the Southside woman’s soul. _Just what was she doing at Winthrop’s Observatory that day? Just what did you do Christina?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow so we got some mysteries solved, this chapter took a lot out of me as a Black Woman. I swear I was freaking out trying to find the right dialect for folks in Kansas, but then I was experimenting with it as well and my Mississippi roots got caught in the dialect lmao. Still the character Macy was a sixty-six old lady born in the late 1800’s, so I hope I didn’t do too bad with her. On content alone I’m doing a standard twenty-nine pages to each chapter, but this went on to thirty-six pages with a total of 20,055 words. I want to finish this in no more than ten to fifteen chapters. However, I connected some of the lore that I found in the re-watching of the show and I added it with events in history, such as the Lore of the Cunningham’s and Clarissa being one of them before she was sold off to marry Samuel Braithwhite. Even though not much is known about the Braithwhite’s and the Order it is only when you slow down parts of the show that you find small tidbits out as well. For me I combine public approved head-cannons such as Christina having a Black figure in her life for her first developmental years, to explain her comfort with black people and how it would cause her to kill racist people like her father and Lancaster despite personal ties.  
> And as much as it could come as a Black Mammy troupe, I can assure you as a Black Woman it is not; now I do share the strain of the starting of the Black-Work-Force (if it could be called that) in those times. A lot of people don’t know but the start to the Black Work Force in America was difficult, as it put strain on the Black Families in those times as I felt that the Macy character was an embodiment of that. And even though many Maids or Charwomen in those times may have went home, there were some cases when they didn’t come home. In the late 1800’s even after the Civil War and the Ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865; still it took all Fifty-States in America and their sweet ass time to get rid of Slavery all together. And IF Blacks were paid for their services by former slave-owners; this would leave children without parents who would soon fall into the deadly Prison System that still plagues Black People today. And sometimes in certain situations parents would leave their children in whole other states to make ends-meat for their families; the reality of it is there, but History doesn’t always cover the gaps.  
> In this chapter I wanted to show the hidden Black Pain in America, as the reality is that most of our Black-Great-Grandmothers and Grandmothers had to care for white children in America, and sometimes it would be for long hours in the day while spiritually, mentally, and physically neglecting their own Black Children. While a lot of it wasn’t completely Black Parent’s fault in those times, still it set back the Black Family dynamic as a whole. The timeline of late 1800’s and 1950’s is NOT like 2021 where men stayed at home and cared for their kids; and there was no co-parenting and communication in those times. That is why I added social bits of History to tell Black Pain and the bitterness when it came to the slow deconstruction of Black Families in the late 1800’s and 1950’s America. Just as well that is why I speak on matters of White People not learning still even today about Black History and the pain endured; even as some of their own White-Great-Grandmothers and Grandmothers have had these pained Black-Women cleaning their houses or working in their fields.  
> Also I wanted to show the true wealth disparity in America in this chapter. Just as well I wanted to show the secret-adoption of Nazism into Jim-Crow America. And while there are Nazi’s from the 1930’s that are still alive TODAY in 2021 that collect American Social Security Checks after they fled Germany. I wanted everyone to know that there’s a connection to history that ties to this Fan-Fic as I wanted to deeply explain Samuel Braithwhite’s ties to White-Supremacy, Classism, Toxic-Masculinity and Toxic-Evangelism aside from Typical Titus as I see Samuel Braithwhite as a Neo-Nazi rather than a Klansmen or distant relative of a Slave-Owner. There are levels of History in this story and it is important that when you write things like Jim-Crow Era you mold the history around the story, it from then that you can better depict the complications of race relations in America. Unless you’re doing a Modern AU, until then don’t worry about it and have fun.   
> Well, I’m not going to do too much heavy preaching on here about History in this story. I just wanted to get that out since it is Black History Month, and this chapter had a bunch of History in it. This still is a cosmic, dis-utopian, vampire, time-traveling-love story and I still want my two leading ladies to be smitten with each other towards the end of it. So please leave comments, bookmarks, and Kudos at the door and we will see what happens to Christina and Ruby next time. Thanks.

**Author's Note:**

> Preview Next Chapter: “You are beyond God, you my dear are Cain and you shall lead us to a great victory and place the first stones of Enoch itself. My dear you are a vampire.”
> 
> Well I’m done let me know what you think in the comments section. I just hope this meets a lot of expectations.


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